Breadcrumb Trail Links
For Jimana David, picking up orders from London’s downtown restaurants has become a constant headache.
Publishing date:
Jul 20, 2022 • 2 hours ago • 3 minute read • 13 Comments 
Bruno Urbano of J-AAR Excavation pushes sand into a large hole at the intersection of Ridout Street and Queens Avenue in London. Construction continues to snarl many core routes in the city. Photograph taken on Tuesday, July 19, 2022. Mike Hensen/The London Free Press
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For Jimana David, picking up orders from London’s downtown restaurants has become a constant headache.
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The seemingly endless number of road closings and roadwork projects in the core – along key streets, and at many major intersections – not only means having to find alternate routes for the food-delivery worker.
David says he also loses valuable time and money in his line of work simply looking for parking or being forced to park far away and walk to restaurants or risk getting parking tickets.
“Sometimes it’s a nightmare,” he says. “It seems like there’s construction everywhere. You can manoeuvre around all the closures, but it makes it more challenging to do your job.”
Construction season in London always brings headaches for drivers and businesses.
But the scope – and the location – of the work happening in the core this year is unprecedented.
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Closed this summer, for instance, is the corner of Richmond Street and Queens Avenue. Other closed sections include portions of King Street between Clarence and Lyle streets, while Wellington Road is seeing some lane reductions.
“This is a record-breaking year for construction in London,” said Jennie Dann, city hall’s director of construction and infrastructure services.
“We’re one of Canada’s fastest-growing cities and a lot of this work is to help us keep pace with our growing population . . . so there is a lot of work happening in and around downtown.”
Key among those projects are London’s $28.5-million downtown loop and the east link project, both part of the city’s bus rapid transit (BRT) system.
Once completed, the downtown loop will surround Dundas Place, with curbside bus-only lanes on Queens Avenue and Ridout, King and Wellington streets. It will include five bus stops along that route. The east link will connect the core to Fanshawe College.
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Karri Egan, owner of Boxcar Donuts on Richmond Street, estimates her downtown location is seeing 40 per cent fewer customers due to road work.
Many of her regulars have opted to go to her Masonville Place location due to the loss of on-street parking spaces downtown, Egan said.
“And it’s been very challenging to bring in walk-in traffic,” she said. “This is having a big impact.”
Relief is not in sight.
Work on the downtown loop, for example, will take all of the construction season this year, with the “finishing touches” happening in 2023, Dann said.
The city first is replacing aging underground infrastructure, including new storm and sanitary sewers as well as water mains.
“It’s really important that, as part of these road reconstruction projects, we also fix our aging underground infrastructure at the same time, so we don’t need to come back for a long time,” she said.
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“That’s why the first part of the projects might seem a little bit slower.”
Yet, Dann said staff are satisfied with the pace of the work, adding crews have taken several measures to speed up construction and city hall is working to find ways to reduce the negative impact on downtown businesses.
Some of these measures include 24-hour construction for some sections and the return of the “construction dollars,” vouchers shoppers can spend in downtown and Old East Village businesses.
“Our goal is always to get these core area projects completed as efficiently as we can so that people can start seeing the benefits of the project,” Dann said.
Streets affected by downtown loop project:
- Ridout Street between Fullarton Street and Queens Avenue: Closed to all traffic
- Ridout Street between Queens Avenue and Dundas Street: Closed to all traffic
- Dundas Place and Ridout Street intersection: Open, but through traffic is not permitted on Dundas Place
- Queens Avenue between Talbot and Ridout streets: One lane westbound on Queens Avenue to exit downtown
- Queens Avenue between Richmond and Talbot streets: Closed until approximately September
- Richmond and Queens intersection: Closed until about mid-August
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Streets affected by east link project
- Waterloo Street and King Street intersection: Closed, including portions of the blocks immediately west and east of the intersection
- King Street between Wellington and Colborne streets: Converted to two-way traffic to allow access to nearby properties
- King Street from Colborne to Adelaide streets: Closed except to local traffic
- Adelaide Street through the King Street intersection: Reduced lanes
- King Street from Adelaide to Lyle streets: Local traffic only. The area is still gravel surface and will be undergoing resurfacing and getting new curbs in the coming weeks
Best routes to reach downtown right now:
- York Street and Oxford Street for east-west access
- Talbot Street and Wharncliffe Road for north-south connections
- Cycling connections are available along Dundas Place, Dundas-Thames Valley Parkway and the Dundas bikeway
- Transit riders are asked to visit the LTC website for detours and service updates
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https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/record-breaking-roadwork-snarls-core-slows-deliveries-hurts-businesses
