April 26, 2016
The City of Toronto will be co-ordinating road closures as it performs significant construction work on the City's roads, sewers and watermains this year to improve Toronto's aging infrastructure for all users.
In 2016, the City will be investing more than $550 million to maintain and upgrade its infrastructure including $263 million on roads, expressways and bridges, $227 million on sewers and watermains and $71 million on basement flooding protection.
The City is taking steps to minimize traffic and congestion during the construction season, including extending hours for key projects (working 24/7 where possible), bundling projects, implementing signal timing changes on parallel routes and enhancing signage at work locations.
"We are continuing to do what is necessary to minimize disruption to the public by making sure that we co-ordinate construction work, extend hours of construction and make the traffic changes needed to ensure that people can keep moving efficiently while these projects take place," said Mayor John Tory.
"We have a very ambitious schedule of construction work planned for 2016," said Councillor Jaye Robinson (Ward 25 Don Valley West), Chair of the City's Public Works and Infrastructure Committee. "Much of our infrastructure is aging and we need to do this work in order to maintain and improve our network of roads, bridges, sewers and watermains."
Some of the major projects planned for 2016 include:
• Completing the west deck replacement of the Gardiner Expressway from Jameson Avenue to Spadina Avenue • Road resurfacing on Bayview Avenue from just south of Highway 401 to Steeles Avenue • Road resurfacing on Warden Avenue from Sheppard Avenue to Steeles Avenue • Road resurfacing on Martin Grove Road, from Vulcan Street (north of Highway 409) to Finch Avenue • Watermain replacement and road work on Gerrard Street from Yonge Street to Sherbourne Street • Road resurfacing on Don Mills Road from Lawrence Avenue to York Mills Road • TTC track replacement, and road and sidewalk repairs on College Street at Bathurst Street and Lansdowne Avenue • Watermain replacement, TTC track replacement and road resurfacing on Richmond Street from Church Street to York Street • Watermain replacement on Queen Street from Bathurst Street to Spadina Avenue • Trunk sewer replacement on Lake Shore Boulevard from Dwight Avenue to Superior Avenue • Watermain replacement on Finch Avenue at Highway 27.
As a result of the construction, it is expected that the City will complete over 122 kilometres of road resurfacing work and 238 kilometres of sewer and watermain work in 2016.
This work is part of the City's comprehensive and co-ordinated strategy to rehabilitate and upgrade Toronto's roads, transit and underground infrastructure for current and future needs.
The City continues its efforts to fill potholes – 64,000 potholes have been filled so far this year. More than 250,000 potholes were repaired in 2015. Residents are asked to use the city's online service at www.toronto.ca/311 to report potholes so that crews can be assigned to fix them. On this page, simply click on "roads" to create a pothole service request or click "open 311API and mobile apps" to download a mobile app to your smartphone.
To help motorists plan their way around, the City has a web-based map, available at
http://www.toronto.ca/roadrestrictions, that identifies ongoing and emergency road construction, travel conditions on City roads and special events. Information about the City's planned capital construction work, which also affects roads, is available at
http://www.toronto.ca/inview.
Toronto is Canada's largest city, the fourth largest in North America, and home to a diverse population of about 2.8 million people. It is a global centre for business, finance, arts and culture and is consistently ranked one of the world's most livable cities. For information on non-emergency City services and programs, Toronto residents, businesses and visitors can visit
http://www.toronto.ca, call 311, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, or follow us @TorontoComms.
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Media contact: Steve Johnston, Strategic Communications, 416-392-4391, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
