Old East braces for more road construction as work resumes on East London Link

More traffic headaches coming to OEV Starting Wednesday, stretches of road in the OEV will be closed for BRT construction. CTV’s Bryan Bicknell explains.

Another season of road construction in London’s Old East Village is about to get underway.

Beginning Wednesday, road closures will take place along part of the Dundas corridor and last through the summer, as crews complete carry-over work on phase two of the East London Link for the bus rapid transit project.

For affected businesses, it’s another season of trying to steer customers to their doors with minimal headaches.

“I gotta admit it is frustrating because we get a lot of calls from our clients who are trying to navigate this area, and not everyone is aware of the closures,” explained Graham Stuart, owner of McHardy Vacuum on Dundas Street. “So then they get stuck. Sometimes they don’t always make it here.”

“With COVID and construction, street traffic and walking traffic have all diminished,” added John Reed of J. Reed Upholstery at Dundas and Woodman. “It will, I hope come back.”

Road closures include:

At Illbury+Goose knick knack shop on Dundas Street, owner Dan Phillips said he’s tired of the back-and-forth.

“Especially last year, the hurdles we had to go through made it really tough,” said Phillips.

He continued, “Luckily for us again we’ve got a lot of customers and we can ship online. But when it’s construction season nobody wants to go around through it. Just be re-inventing the wheel once again and trying to stay relevant and letting people come shop and come figure out how they’re going to get here.”

The city said local traffic and pedestrian access will be maintained throughout construction, so you’ll still be able to get to your destination in the Old East Village, but you might have to jump a few traffic hurdles.

Jennie Dann, the city’s director of construction and infrastructure said the road closures, excluding local traffic, may be inconvenient, but it’s the safest way to complete the work.

“A lot of our typical carry-over work includes raising the man-hole lids in preparation for top-coat asphalt. We’ll be removing the temporary street poles and street lights, we’ll be doing some deficiency repairs to concrete and finishing touches, so it those last things. But we really need to touch a lot of spots throughout the project so it’s safest and clearest for everybody if we a close the end points and just allow drivers to have local access,” said Dann.

The city said it’s working closely with local businesses to address their needs during construction.

This phase of the East London Link is expected to wrap by the end of summer.