‘This is just a hazard’: Fanshawe students stalled by construction trying to get to class

Students at Fanshawe College are facing detours and delays related to construction. CTV London’s Bryan Bicknell has more.

Some Fanshawe College students have been going in circles this week- even before they arrive to the Oxford Street East campus.

Major construction around the college is causing traffic delays, with some students saying it’s causing them to arrive late for their first classes.

Student Ariana Markle says she’s had to resort to Uber over public transit, in hopes of making it on time - but even that’s no guarantee.

“They changed the bus loop to one area, and then another and like didn’t really give anyone information about it. And like I don’t drive. I can’t rely on the bus because if I take the bus I’ll be like 20 minutes late and I’ll have to leave like an hour before. So I sometimes take Uber, and not even Ubers know how to navigate this area, and it’s not even updated on Google Maps,” she said.

The front of Fanshawe College, facing Oxford, is undergoing major construction. While pedestrians can access the school through the front door, there is no vehicle access.

Furthermore, Oxford in front of the college has reduced lanes between Third Street and Highbury Avenue, and there’s ongoing construction at the corner of Oxford and Fanshawe College Boulevard.

Some students CTV News spoke with say it’s been difficult to find a routine.

“Very annoying, especially with Oxford Street too. I commute from down there. Takes me about 20 minutes just ‘cause of the construction. And then I gotta find parking. Then I gotta walk through all this. This is just a hazard,” said one student.

“We’re both commuting together, so that sort of helps,” added his traveling companion. “But at the end of the day you gotta find alternative routes. But the first day was maybe like 15 minutes just sitting in that traffic,” he complained.

All the activity around Fanshawe College is taking place as work continues at the intersection of Oxford and Highbury. It’s all part of the East London Link for Rapid Transit.

Rich McEvoy, Manager of Facilities Information Systems at Fanshawe, says the college is working with both London Transit and the city to make the commute to school as practical as possible.

“To try and mitigate those delays as much as possible. We’ve got our access on Oxford is going to be closed for the next couple of weeks. We’ve made improvements on our Fanshawe College access. We actually had to work with the city to get temporary lights installed at our north entrance off of Cheapside, so that will greatly enhance the traffic flow through that area,” McEvoy explained.

He said he expects construction around Fanshawe to wrap within a few weeks.