Construction along Toronto’s Lake Shore causing commuter headaches, standstill traffic

While traffic on Lake Shore Boulevard near Jarvis Street has been an ongoing headache for commuters, it’s recently become even worse, with some drivers waiting up to three hours in the area.

Some drivers tell CityNews they’ve become increasingly frustrated, exhausted, and desperate to get moving.

“Absolutely ridiculous. I’m a little bit stressed,” said one woman who had been waiting over an hour in the logjam. “I’m nine months pregnant right now, I’m sitting in traffic, and I don’t know when we’re going to get out of this.”

“[It’s] extremely frustrating,” said another driver. “It takes me 40 minutes to get home when I live 10 minutes away.”

CityNews first brought you the story in November when the four lanes of Lake Shore were reduced to one lane between Cherry and Yonge streets as Enbridge worked to replace portions of a high-pressure natural gas pipeline.

A different portion of that pipeline is being replaced further west, and the stretch between Bay and York streets is down to one lane. While the city said these lanes would reopen by Saturday, the project won’t be complete for another five weeks. The next portion is expected to close westbound lanes between Yonge and Jarvis Streets.

The city said the backup on Tuesday was a combination of the construction and a collision in the afternoon.

“When I say we’re throwing all hands on deck, we’re throwing literally everything we can at this to mitigate construction problems and traffic,” said Stuart McGhie, Manager of Work Zone with the City, admitting that it’s going to feel like a lot is going on all at once for a while.

“We’re working on it. We’re making improvements on coordination, especially on longer-term projects.”

Nearby roads are also closed for dozens of other projects, blocking major arteries and creating bottlenecks throughout the city.

“It’s going to be a hectic moment for a bit. Downtown’s going be crazy,” said McGhie. “For the next little while, I would be pushing people to use transit as much as possible.”

Even after Enbridge has completed its construction project, endless others are on the horizon, including repairing the aging Gardiner Expressway.

“That 60-year-old piece of infrastructure continues to be in a state of poor repair; it needs repair urgently. Today, this isn’t something we should be waiting on. The safety of our residents is paramount,” said Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie.

It’s a topic that could become a debate point in the upcoming mayoral by-election as some groups have called for the city to reevaluate whether the work, expected to cost close to $500 million, is necessary.

With files from Meredith Bond of CityNews