Staff Report #7
March 26, 2025
To All Commissioners
Re: 2025 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.
Rapid Transit Station Installation
Work has continued on the Rapid Transit shelter installations with shelters being installed along the East London Link Phase I in preparation for the start of service on King Street effective for the Spring Signup at the end of April.
Work has also continued with the installation of shelters in the Downtown Loop. Installation of the shelter at Queens and Ridout began on March 10, with the stop being reopened March 20. Work is now progressing on the King and Talbot installation which is anticipated to be completed by the end of the first week of April.
During the closures, buses have to exit the transit lanes and operate in the mixed-use traffic lanes. Buses are not 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.
In addition to the installation of the shelters in the Downtown Loop work is also taking place to install the tactile plates at the station edge for all locations downtown. Each stop will be closed for approximately one week while this work is taking place. In order to ensure efficiency of the installation, crews will be working at both stops along King at the same time and then moving to the stops on Queens. While the work is taking place on either street the only open stops will be at Richmond. We continue to work with the City of London and the contractors to come up with a schedule to limit the impacts to customers while ensuring the efficiency of the installations.
Wellington Gateway Phase III
Work on the Wellington Gateway Phase III is set to resume on March 31 and will result in lane reductions along Wellington for the duration of the construction season. The lane reductions will result in stop closures within the work zone and again have significant travel distances for passengers to access transit.
Wellington Gateway Phase IV
As with Wellington Gateway Phase III, work will resume on Wellington Gateway Phase IV on March 31. As with the other work happening along Wellington, there will also be lane reductions within the limits of Wellington Gateway Phase IV resulting in stop closures.
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 2024, 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 fall 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. 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 need to be closed as the work on this phase progresses. The closure was originally anticipated for February 3; this has since been delayed and timing for the stop closure is not known at this time. Once the stop is closed 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 III C.
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 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.
East London Link Phase IV
Work along Oxford Street between Highbury and Second Street commenced on March 17. The initial work is focused on road widening in order to shift traffic from the south side of Oxford to the north side. As there will only be a single lane in each direction, stops along Oxford will be impacted. The stops at Oxford and Second have been shifted approximately 100 meters east of Second Street. The Westbound stop at Oxford and First Street has had to be closed. We are working with Fanshawe College and the contractors to determine possible options to continue to provide a westbound stop near the College for Route 17. One option may be to use the emergency entrance into the college. Should this option not be approved by Fanshawe, the alternative will be to direct passengers to Oxford at Roehampton.
Work is currently scheduled to start on the Fanshawe College property in May 2025, with the first phase focused on building the new terminal. Buses entering the College will not be impacted during this phase and will continue to be able to serve the College at the existing terminal location.
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.
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