Staff Report #13
May 9, 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
Installations of the Rapid Transit stations along the East London Link Phase I and II as well as the Downtown Loop have been completed with the exception of Queens and Clarence. The timing of installation at the Queens and Clarence location is not known at this time.
Additionally, tactile plates and the Obelisks have also been installed in the Downtown Loop and along the East London Link Phase I and II.
Wellington Gateway Phase III
Work on Wellington Gateway Phase III continues between Southdale and Waterman. Bus stops in the construction zone will remain closed until the work has been completed as there is only a single travel lane in each direction. Passengers are being directed to the closest open stops, noting that there are some additional impacts to stop closures as a result of the adjacent Wellington Gateway Phase IV project.
Wellington Gateway Phase IV
Construction resumed on the Wellington Gateway project on April 28, with traffic operating on the east side of the road. With the traffic flip, the northern most entrance on Wellington into White Oaks Mall has been closed. This entrance is used by the majority of bus routes in order to be able to serve the stops on White Oaks Mall property. During the time of the entrance closure, buses will be detoured to enter the White Oaks Mall property from the Bradley entrance and be able to continue to serve all of the regular stops at the mall.
While work is taking place on the west side of Wellington, Holiday Ave and Greenfield Drive area also closed. As a result, the limited service extension on Route 13 to Wellington and Exeter has been suspended during the construction due to no turnaround options and the closure of all stops in the area. It is expected that Holiday and Greenfield will be closed for the majority of the 2025 construction season.
There will also be impacts to bus stops along Wellington during the construction resulting in the closure of some stops for the duration of construction season. We continue to work with the contractor to identify and establish safe locations for temporary bus stop locations within the limits of the project.
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.
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. 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.
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.
Due to the limited options for detours, Route 10 is continuing to operate along Highbury for the duration of the construction.
With significant schedule adherence concerns on 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, 2025. 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.
Stops at both Oxford and First Street as well as Oxford and Roehampton westbound have been closed as work continues on building a temporary sidewalk, which should be completed in the coming days. Once the sidewalk has been created, a temporary stop west of Roehampton will be implemented to provide service as close to Fanshawe College as possible for the westbound Route 17 buses.
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.
Pond Mills Road
The MTO work has resumed with the closure of Pond Mills Road between Bradley and Wilton Grove Road while work continues on the 401 overpass. During the construction, Route 30 will again be detoured however, this year the detour is less impactful as Highbury Ave is open which reduces the detour length.
Stop along Pond Mills between Bradley and Enterprise are currently closed and are expected to remain closed until the end of the construction season this fall.
Oxford and Richmond Intersection
Work began on the traffic signal rebuild at the Oxford and Richmond intersection on May 5 and is expected to last until July 2025. While no detours are required during the work as lanes will remain open in each direction, the northbound, eastbound and westbound bus stops within the project limits will be relocated during the work.
Colonel Talbot Road Rehabilitation
As work continues on the Colonel Talbot Road rehabilitation, construction work will be starting between Raleigh and Southdale that will require the full closure of the road starting on Monday May 12. This will result in Route 24 being detoured via Pomeroy Lane until approximately June 13. With this detour, four stops will be missed on the route.
Highbury Ave
Highbury Ave will be closed in both directions between Hamilton Road and the 401 on Thursday May 15 for annual road operations maintenance. During this time Routes 10 and 95 will be detoured via Commissioners (Route 10), Bradley (Route 95), Old Victoria Road and Hamilton. While the detour will not result in any stop closures, the significant length of the detour, coupled with the increased traffic along the detour routing will have impacts to schedule adherence.
Special Events
Khalsa Parade
The annual Khalsa Parade will be held on Sunday May 18 starting at Victoria Park. The parade will require a rolling detour along the route, Central Ave, Richmond, Pall Mall, Colborne, Dufferin and Wellington. Routes 1, 4, 6, 13, 15 and 90 will have to be detoured during the event and may result in schedule adherence issues.
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