Staff Report #12
January 29, 2025
To All Commissioners
Re: Road Construction Update
Recommendation
The report be NOTED and FILED.
Background
As has been the case over the past number of years, the City of London has and will be undertaking a large number of construction projects in 2025, a number of which are carried over from the 2024 construction period and will continue to have impacts to transit routes and schedule adherence.
London Transit administration will continue to work closely with civic administration as well as the specific contractors on each major construction project to ensure regular communication regarding the status of the projects in an effort to mitigate the impact of construction on service and ridership by allowing buses to operate in work zones where it is deemed safe to do so.
Downtown Loop Phase and Wellington Gateway Phase I
Construction work has been completed on the Downtown Loop Phase III and Wellington Gateway Phase I. All local routes serving the downtown along King, Wellington, Queens and Ridout are using the Rapid Transit (RT) lanes and dedicated transit signals. LTC administration continues to work with civic administration regarding the operations of the transit signals to optimize efficiency as we continue to monitor service through the core.
Installation of the RT stations has begun at Ontario and King. Currently the next planned installation will be at Wellington and King northbound with other installations in the downtown loop occurring over the coming months. The installations should take approximately two weeks at each location and will require the stop to be closed for the duration of the installation process. Full schedule details are not known at time of report writing. Updates will be provided to the Commission as details are known.
During the closures, buses will have to exit the transit lanes and operate in the mixed use traffic lanes. Buses will not be able to turn using the transit signals as they will be operating in mixed use traffic. Internal communications have been provided to Operators to ensure that they are in the correct lanes and travelling using the correct traffic signals during these stop closure periods.
The current work will be the installation of the stations only. Additional work with the potential for additional stop closures including the installation of the Obelisk, electrical components, other amenities (benches, real time information signs, security cameras, etc.) and artwork will be occurring at a later date still to be determined.
Wellington Gateway Phase III
Work on Wellington Gateway has wrapped up for the season. All lanes on Southdale have been re-opened as well as lanes on Wellington south of Southdale, allowing for some additional stop locations to be reopened until construction resumes in the area.
Wellington Gateway Phase IV
As with Wellington Gateway Phase III, work has finished for the season on Wellington Gateway Phase IV. All lanes have been reopened on Bradley which has significantly improved schedule adherence for routes operating in this area. Work is anticipated to resume in this area in the spring.
East London Link Phase III A
Work commenced on Dundas Street between Egerton and McCormick Blvd for Phase III A of the East London Link Rapid Transit project on March 18, 2024. Work for this phase of the construction is broken down into stages with one lane in each direction remaining open for the majority of the construction period. Work is currently taking place on Dundas between Egerton and Kellogg Lane in the center lanes resulting in a single lane in each direction.
In early August, work started on Dundas between Kellogg Lane and McCormick Blvd. As with the previous phases, a single lane in each direction remains open.
While it was initially planned for all work on this project to be completed during the 2024 construction season, due to some delays, there will be carryover work into the 2025 construction season with work continuing through the winter as much as possible. At this time, a completion date has not been determined for 2025. Stops will be closed in the area as required.
East London Link Phase III B
Preliminary work on Phase III B (Highbury Ave Bridge) started on January 13, 2025. Currently the impacts are very limited, but it is anticipated that there will be further impacts to transit and overall traffic movement in the area as work progresses over the coming weeks.
The stop on Highbury north of Dundas northbound is anticipated to be closed on February 3, 2025 for the duration of the work in this phase. A temporary stop location will be placed south of the intersection to continue to provide access to transit at this key transfer location, noting all other stops north of Dundas are currently closed as a result of the work on East London Link Phase IIIC.
East London Link Phase III C
Construction along Highbury Ave north of the overpass to Oxford Street began in mid-February 2024.
Construction will be completed in phases with each phase having a different impact on transit. Due to the limited options for detours, Route 10 is continuing to operate along Highbury for the duration of the construction.
Due to schedule adherence concerns with Route 95, it was determined it was best to detour the route to operate along First Street. With the stop closures already in place along Highbury, the detour only misses one additional stop and has improved reliability of the route significantly. Unlike Route 10, Route 95 terminates at Fanshawe College making the detour option more feasible. The detour will remain in place until the work on Highbury has been completed.
Currently all stops northbound and southbound along Highbury between the Regional Mental Health Lands and Landor (just south of Cheapside) are closed as well as the eastbound stops on Oxford between Highbury and Mornington. This is currently resulting in a 900-meter walk for passengers to be able to transfer from a northbound bus to an eastbound bus. While these closures were initially anticipated until the end of July 2024, current construction set up requires the stops to remain closed. At this time there is no information as to when stops may be able to reopen in order to reduce the distance for connections. Traffic shifts will be happening in the coming weeks along both Highbury and Oxford; however, as stops are already closed in both directions throughout the project limit, this change is not anticipated to have any additional impacts to passengers.
Adelaide Street North Underpass
Four lanes of traffic have opened on Adelaide, resulting in some bus stops being able to be reopened. Stops at McMahen northbound and Pall Mall southbound remain closed due to ongoing finishing work in the area. Full project completion is set for Summer 2025.
Dundas and Waterloo Intersection
Bell work commenced at the intersection of Dundas and Waterloo to repair manholes in the centre of the intersection. As a result of this work, Routes 2, 20 and 94 will be on detour in both directions until the completion of the project. It is currently anticipated that the work will last until the middle of March 2025.
Communications
The underlying goals with respect to communication regarding detours are to provide passengers and Operators with as much information as far in advance as possible, noting that dates and impacts can change without notice. Accomplishing both of these goals requires a balanced approach. A communication strategy has been developed which includes posting information on internal boards, the website, real-time alerts and social media as well as through stop level notifications which will provide passengers with information regarding which stops are closed and direct them to the closest stop location. On road Inspectors are completing daily audits of all stop closures and temporary stop locations to ensure detailed information is available at the stop level to assist passengers in navigating the detours.
Recommended by:
Katie Burns, Director of Planning
David Butler, Manager, Operations Administration
Concurred in by:
Kelly S. Paleczny, General Manager