What drivers need to know about long-term lane closures on the Gardiner that start next week

Westbound traffic is seen on the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston

A stretch of the westbound Gardiner Expressway will be reduced from four lanes to three starting next week as rehabilitation work on the aging highway continues.

Starting April 7, the city says the westbound Gardiner will be reduced by one lane between Park Lawn Road and Grand Avenue for approximately one year to accommodate “essential bridge repairs.”

“As part of the next stage of the Gardiner Expressway Strategic Rehabilitation Plan, the City of Toronto will soon begin critical repair work on five bridges to ensure they remain in a state of good repair,” a news release issued by the city read.

The release noted that while rehabilitation work between Highway 427 and the Humber River was scheduled to take place from 2027 to 2031, the bridges were identified for “an advanced start following condition assessments that noted the need for critical repair.”

The eastbound lanes of the Gardiner from Grand Avenue to Park Lawn Road will be narrowed from April 2025 to December 2026 but no lane reductions are planned.

Kipling Avenue and Islington Avenue will be reduced from three lanes in each direction to two lanes where they pass over the Gardiner. This reduction is expected to begin in April and will be in place for about eight months.

A full closure of the Park Lawn Road on-ramp to the westbound Gardiner Expressway is expected between November 2025 and April 2026. This work will replace a single-lane bridge that carries ramp traffic over Mimico Creek.

Park Lawn Road, where it passes under the Gardiner, will have single lane reductions and three lanes will be maintained “at all times,” the City noted. This is expected to continue for about four months “with timing to be determined and communicated in advance.”

“These lane reductions will not occur at the same time as the closure of the Park Lawn Road on-ramp to the westbound Gardiner Expressway,” the City added.

Work undertaken during this stage of the rehabilitation project will “incorporate the same acceleration measures” as those on the Gardiner between Dufferin Street and Strachan Avenue, the City said. This includes completion incentives that enable crews to work up to 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“The City will implement congestion management measures including traffic monitoring on the Gardiner Expressway and diversion routes, real-time adjustments to traffic signal timings and deploying Traffic Agents at key intersections during busy periods to help keep traffic flowing. Prior to construction starting, signage will be installed to advise motorists of the upcoming closures,” the news release continued.

“Advancing this critical project is necessary to maintain the safety and reliability of the Gardiner Expressway and will be done while balancing the needs of road users with those of residents and businesses in the nearby area.”

The City noted that it is “working closely” with the Ontario Food Terminal to make sure the impact to operations in minimal.

“This will be done by aligning the construction schedule with the low season (November to April) at the Terminal and providing a dedicated detour route for the Terminal’s truck traffic,” the released read.

Jennifer Graham Harkness, chief engineer and the executive director of Engineering and Construction Services, spoke with CP24 on Monday afternoon about two rehabilitation projects.

The first one, which is currently under construction, is known as “Section 2” and runs between Dufferin Street and Strachan Avenue. Harkness said the city is “making great progress” on this project.

“We have completed the first stage of construction. We are well underway in the second stage of construction and things are looking really good that we will be on target to meet that getting it open at least one year earlier,” she said.

The second, she said, will take about a year to complete and involves repairing five bridges between Grand Avenue and Park Lawn Road.

Harkness said the city has “applied all the lessons learned” during the Gardiner Section 2 contract in order to get the new bridge rehab project done as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

“We looked very closely at what the traffic told us in terms of what we might experience with modeling, and what it suggested is that by go looking at just the lane closure in the westbound direction, will have the least impact to the overall traffic,” she said.

“The second part is we’ve applied incentives so that the contract will go faster and we’ve told them that they are welcome to work 24/7 to get the job done as quickly as possible. Of course, with really noisy activities, we’ll make sure that that doesn’t happen overnight.”

Gardiner rehab work going going ‘very well,’ says city official

Harkness said overall the rehabilitation work on the Gardiner has been going “very well.”

“The contractor has been doing a great job in terms of using every type of technique that he can to go as fast as possible and to get the work done in a really quality way,” she said.

“So we’re really impressed that the measures have worked. Yes, it’s still disruptive to traffic, and I know it’s tough going through the work area and coming into it, but the work is going really well and as quickly as quickly as possible.”