Construction that has been snarling traffic on the Gardiner Expressway since early last year could be complete by the end of the year, according to Toronto’s top bureaucrat.
The work to rehabilitate an elevated portion of the lakeside highway began in April 2024 and has reduced a section of it from three to two lanes in each direction. It was originally scheduled to wrap up by mid-2027, but in successive updates since then the city and province have announced it was ahead of schedule.
On Tuesday, city manager Paul Johnson said there’s a “chance” the work will be done by the end of 2025, and is likely to be finished well before º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøhosts six games for the FIFA World Cup 2026. The first match kicks off June 12, 2026.
There’s a “chance of this year or certainly early into next year before FIFA,” Johnson told CBC Radio’s “Metro Morning,” when asked when the project would be done. He said there is no firm completion date, and how quickly it can be finished will largely depend on how winter weather affects construction.Â
Johnson noted that the work was originally expected to take so long the city planned to pause it to allow the highway to be fully open during the World Cup, and then close lanes again after the tournament. But that may no longer be necessary.
“There is some optimism it will be done well in advance of FIFA,” he said, “which is great news to all the teams, and a big thanks to the province for stepping up and helping us complete this project early.”
The work is part of a multi-year rehabilitation project required to keep the highway, which has been in service for more than six decades, in usable condition. It requires replacing 700 metres of concrete deck and girders, shoring up the substructure, and installing new lighting.Â
The lane closures have caused a chronic traffic pinch-point and been a major source of frustration for the Gardiner’s 140,000 drivers. The province reported earlier this year that travel times had increased by up to 250 per cent.
In July 2024, the Ontario PC government — which has agreed to take ownership of the Gardiner and Don Valley Expressway from the city — announced it would spend $73 million to speed up the work by at least one year, to April 2026. Last month, Mayor Olivia Chow said construction time had been “cut in half” from three years, although she didn’t provide a firm end date.
Although the upload of the Gardiner and DVP was announced as part of the so-called “new deal” for º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøreached between Chow and Premier Doug Ford in November 2023, it has yet to be finalized.
Nearly two years after Chow and Ford announced the province would upload the Gardiner, it’s still largely Toronto’s problem.
Nearly two years after Chow and Ford announced the province would upload the Gardiner, it’s still largely Toronto’s problem.
Johnson said Tuesday the city and province are still discussing fine points of the transfer, including legal and operational issues. He said the upload is complicated by the fact that there are municipal assets underneath the Gardiner’s elevated sections that the province isn’t taking over.
“We’ve got stuff below it that the city is going to own and operate,” he said.Â
But he stressed that Ontario has been paying for work required on the highways since the agreement was announced. “The upload from a financial perspective happened when the new deal was kicked off,” he said.Â
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