Staff Report #5
June 23, 2025
To All Commissioners
Re: 2025 Road Construction and Special Events Update
Recommendation
The report be RECEIVED for information.
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.
Clark’s Bridge
Work continues on the construction on Clark’s Bridge which has resulted in the closure of northbound stops on Wellington at Weston and Grand. With these stop closures, passengers travelling northbound currently have approximately a 900-meter travel distance between stops.
Starting as early as the week of June 23, traffic will be flipped to be operating on the east side of Wellington. Once traffic has been flipped the two northbound stops currently closed at Weston and Grand will be able to be reopened. Southbound stops at Grand and McClary will have to be closed, but a temporary stop two hydro poles south of McClary will be installed until the work is completed to reduce travel distance for passengers.
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 northernmost 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 are 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.
As construction is progressing, the signalized entrance at the southern end of the mall exiting onto Wellington will have to be closed to allow for the sewer tie in work to be completed. Work is currently scheduled to commence on June 23 and last for approximately 5 days. During this time, the signalized entrance will be completely closed, impacting the exit for all bus routes serving White Oaks Mall. After coordination with White Oaks Mall and the contractor, all bus routes will be continuing around the exterior roadway within the mall parking area to exit onto Jalna Blvd while the work is being completed. It is anticipated that this will have impacts on schedule adherence as buses will be on the mall property for a longer period of time.
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 remain 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 the 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 continues 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 the 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.
Route 17 westbound has been temporarily detoured into the Fanshawe College campus as a result of the stop on Oxford at First Street having to be closed. With the spring/summer service reductions there is capacity at the terminal. Should the stop still need to be closed in the fall, other considerations need to be made as to where the westbound Route 17 buses will be able to stop in order to provide safe and accessible access to the Fanshawe College campus as there will not be space within the terminal to accommodate the westbound direction.
With the temporary sidewalk construction completed and a temporary bus stop pad installed at Roehampton, the stop at this location has been reopened.
Work has started on Fanshawe College, with the first phase focused on building the new terminal east of the existing location. Buses entering the College will not be impacted during this phase and will continue to be able to serve the College at the current terminal location.
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.
Stops 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 rebuilding of the traffic signal 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 construction.
Bradley Ave
Construction is set to begin on the Bradley Ave extension between Wharncliffe and White Oak Road in Late June. As part of this construction, Bradley between White Oak Road and Jalna Blvd (W Leg) will also be getting upgraded to create a four lane, complete street with sidewalks, in boulevard bike lanes, lighting, and landscaping to support all modes of transportation and development in the area. While the construction of the extension will not have impacts on transit, the work between White Oak Road and Jalna will impact the Route 28 with stop closures. It is expected that one lane of traffic will be maintained through the majority of the project however, short-term lane closures may be necessary to complete the work in the constrained sections of the roadway. During this time, detours may need to be put in place. The entirety of the project is scheduled to be completed in fall 2026 with some restoration work taking place in Spring 2027.
York Street
With work progressing on work along York Street, starting July 2 the Wellington and York intersection will be closed in all directions for approximately two months. This will impact Routes 1, 3, 5, 7, 13 and 90, resulting in detours and stop closures. We are working with the City of London to determine if buses can be detoured via Colborne and King (using the new contraflow bus lane on King for westbound travel). For this to be an option buses excepted sign would need to be added to the no left turns onto King. Should this not be an option, Planning will have to determine other detour options as turning off Colborne onto Dundas or Queens is not operationally feasible.
Special Events
Canda Day Fireworks
Fireworks will be held at Harris Park on Tuesday July 1 in celebration of Canda Day. As the fireworks are set off from the Queens Street Bridge, detours will be in place for downtown routes that normally operate along Queens, Ridout and Riverside.
Torch Run
The torch run for the Special Olympics will be happening on Tuesday July 1. Routing details are still to be determined, noting the usual route operates along Queens Ave in the new Rapid Transit lanes. Further discussions are set to determine the routing of the run going forward to reduce the impact on Rapid Transit.
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