Staff Report #3
September 17, 2024
To All Members of the Accessible Public Transit Service Advisory Committee
Re: 2024 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 during the 2024 construction season, many of which will 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 III
Phase III of the Downtown Loop, Wellington between York and Queens, began construction in mid-March 2023. With the ongoing lane channeling not only limiting the ability to have stops along Wellington, but also impacting the operational ability for buses to turn off King onto Wellington, all routes operating along Wellington and King between York and Queens have been detoured since the start of construction.
With the base coat of asphalt in place, all lanes within the project limits have been reopened, however due to the concrete bus platforms still raised above the asphalt, all routes remain on detour at this time. At time of report writing, crews were scheduled to be completing temporary asphalt ramping up to the platform to allow routes to resume regular routing until the top coat of asphalt is laid in the fall.
Wellington Gateway Phase I
Construction on the first phase of the Wellington Gateway Rapid Transit leg commenced in mid-March 2023, with work taking place between York and the Thames River (north of Grand). With Wellington being limited to a single lane in each direction, buses cannot stop within the construction zone to allow passengers to board or alight the bus. As such, Routes 13 and 90 have been detoured via Grand, Carfrae/Richmond in order to maintain schedule adherence and provide stop locations for passengers.
Route 1 is remaining on regular routing along Wellington in order to continue to access South Street, Grey Street, and Colborne, noting that there are no stops on Wellington for Route 1 during construction.
Paving work is scheduled to be completed by the end of August in this section, which should allow routes to resume regular routing with stops once completed.
Wellington Gateway Phase III
Stage I of Wellington Gateway Phase III commenced in mid-July spanning Wellington between Harlech Gate and Wilkins. During this stage of construction, the westbound to northbound merge lane from Southdale to Wellington has been closed. As a result the turn for Route 13A off of Southdale is not operationally feasible and has resulted in a detour being put in place. In addition, all stops north of Southdale to Wilkins in the northbound direction have been closed.
All traffic is anticipated to be shifted to the southbound lanes by September 30, resulting in one lane in each direction throughout the limits of phase III. While it was initially anticipated that some temporary stop locations could be established during construction, concerns have been raised by the construction company and as such there will not be any stops in either direction between Harlech Gate and Wilkins. This results in approximately a 1.7km gap between stops in either direction. This will be further compounded when the lane shift for Wellington Gateway Phase IV construction commences (see details below)
Similar to Wellington Gateway IV, the work will occur over multiple years with finishing work anticipated in 2026.
Wellington Gateway Phase IV
Pre-construction work has commenced for Wellington Gateway IV. Temporary traffic signal activation and traffic shift to the southbound lanes is currently scheduled for the first week of September with construction limits between Harlech Gate and 200 meters north of Exeter. This phase of the Rapid Transit construction is scheduled to last over multiple construction seasons with the finishing work anticipated to be completed by the end of July 2026.
London Transit administration is working with the City of London to ensure that some stops can be maintained within the construction limits for the duration of the project, noting the project limits stretch approximately 1.6 km. Conversations are also continuing with the City and the contractor to ensure that entrance and egress is maintained into White Oaks Mall from Wellington during the construction to allow transit service to continue to service the mall.
East London Link Phase II
Finishing and deficiency work is required along Dundas between Ontario and Egerton as part of the East London Link Phase II Rapid Transit work. Due to construction delays, and recent failures on the asphalt testing, timing of completion is not known at time of writing Until Dundas is fully reopened in this area, Routes 2 and 94 have been detoured to York Street and Route 20 is operating along Dufferin and Princess.
East London Link Phase IIIA
Work commenced on Dundas Street between Egerton and McCormick Blvd for Phase IIIA of the East London Link Rapid Transit project on March 18, 2024. Work for this phase of the construction will be 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 on the north side of the road, resulting in westbound traffic being shifted to the south side.
In early August, work started on Dundas between Kellogg Lane and McCormick Blvd. As with the previous phases, a single lane in each direction will remain open.
As buses are already detoured off Dundas for the East London Link Phase II works, they are remaining on detour through the East London Link Phase III limits due to operational issues with turning movements onto Dundas.
All work on the East London Link Phase IIIA project is scheduled to be completed by mid-December 2024 and is not anticipated to have any carry-over work into 2025.
East London Link Phase IIIC
Construction along Highbury Ave north of the overpass to Oxford Street began in mid-February.
Construction will be completed in phases with each phase having a different impact on transit. Due to the limited options for detours, Route10 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, 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 be reopened in order to reduce the distance for connections.
With the start of school, information has been provided to Fanshawe College students regarding the construction in the area and the impacts on transfers as well as potential service delays when travelling through the construction zone to help them plan their travels.
Adelaide Street North Underpass
On April 19, 2024, two lanes (one in each direction) opened along Adelaide, with vehicles now being able to travel under the underpass. This will eliminate the train delays for Routes 16 and 92 that were experienced on a daily basis at this location. As it is still only a single lane in each direction throughout the construction limits, routes will continue to have no stops within the construction zone. All four lanes are scheduled to open by the end of the year with the full project completion set for Summer 2025.
Fanshawe and Richmond Intersection Project
Work resumed on the rebuild of the Fanshawe and Richmond intersection in early March. The 2024 work is along Fanshawe Park Road between North Centre Road west and North Centre Road east. With the nature of the construction traffic being shifted to either the north side or south side of the road depending on the construction phase. Due to Fanshawe being limited to a single lane in each direction all stops along Fanshawe Park Road (both eastbound and westbound) within the construction limits will be closed for the duration of the project.
This results in approximately a 700-meter walk for Route 19 passengers to access Masonville Mall as well as transfer connections at the Mall terminal. With the construction limits, temporary stop locations are not an option during this work. Work is scheduled to be completed by the end of August.
Pond Mills Road
Construction resumed along Pond Mills Road on May 1, 2024 as part of the ongoing MTO project. This year, the Highbury interchange has remained open, which reduces the distance required for the detour. While the distance for the detour has been reduced, schedule adherence issues are still being experienced on Route.
Construction is scheduled to be completed for the season in October, with work commencing again in 2025 to complete the project.
Alumni Circle
Western University is updating the layout of Alumni Circle to improve sightlines for motorists to see pedestrians as well as to clearly designate bus stop areas. The current bus stop areas in front of Alumni Hall and adjacent to the Faculty of Law will have red pavement markings to indicate the bus stopping areas and help make enforcement easier to keep other vehicles from stopping in the space. Work was originally set to be completed in mid-August, however there have been delays and work is now not scheduled to be completed until the first week of September. During this time, all routes normally serving Alumni Circle have been detoured via Perth, Lambton, Huron and Philip Aziz.
Detour details have been shared with Western so that the students can be advised of the temporary routing modification.
Special Events
Opening of the Courts
The Opening of the Courts ceremony will take place on Queens Ave, closing Queens between Talbot and Ridout between 4 pm and 6 pm on September 24. All westbound routes on Queens will be detoured via Richmond, Dufferin and Ridout during this time.
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/Infoweb 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:
Shawn Wilson, Director of Operations
Concurred in by:
Kelly S. Paleczny, General Manager