Adedokun Waliyu 
For those who live or visit Toronto’s Riverdale neighbourhood, be prepared for it to be a little more difficult to get around as construction crews will be shutting down part of Broadview Avenue for five months.
Beginning on Tuesday, the southbound lanes of Broadview Avenue will be closed between Danforth Avenue and Gerrard Street East. On the same stretch of road, there will just be one narrow northbound lane open for vehicles. Also, there will be lane closures on Broadview Avenue between Erindale and Danforth Avenues between September and November.
“Our infrastructure is aging and there is no question that there is a need for replacement and updating of this infrastructure,” Mo Pannu, the City of Toronto’s director of roadways design and construction, said Friday morning while acknowledging the difficulty the project will mean.
“Obviously this will bring a lot of challenges and we are hoping that we will have patience from our area residents, businesses as well as the travelling public.”
Crews will be doing sewer rehabilitation work to extend the service life by decades. The TTC 504 and 505 streetcar tracks will also be replaced and the road will be repaved.
“It will reduce the noise in the area as well as provide more stability in the service going forward for years to come,” Pannu added.
Laurence Lui, the head of service planning and scheduling with the TTC, said the transit agency had to come up with an alternate way to fill service gaps created as a result of the construction. He added the northbound lane on Broadview Avenue would be too narrow for TTC buses.
“We know that there’s a lot of impacts to our customers when we’re removing transit service from the street for a period of construction,” he said.
In mid-June, the TTC boosted service frequency on the 72A Pape bus route, which runs along Pape and Carlaw avenues. Also, 506C streetcar replacement buses are running along Gerrard Street East to take riders to Castle Frank subway station.
“This is big, and it’s going to frustrate everybody a lot, particularly the transit changes associated with this construction,” she said.
“I will be watching it like a hawk and looking at any impacts that need to be mitigated.”
Fletcher said the area she represents is seeing a lot of construction at various stages for public transit projects, something that’s both positive and negative for people travelling and living nearby.
“My ward is ground zero for transit construction both for TTC improvements, track replacement, and of course five stations on the Ontario Line,” she said.
When asked about the 24-hour-a-day construction and steps being taken to mitigate its effects, Fletcher said she and municipal officials will be monitoring.
“I would not expect loud drilling and other things of that nature, heavy decibels. I would assume that there’ll be prep work, but not a big daytime-type construction during the evening and if there is I will ask to have that revisited,” she said.
Another area of concern is for business owners and operators who are still recovering from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Every clear way that we can possibly keep open will be open during this time,” Fletcher said.
“There are certain things that the City is going to do for the businesses, particularly on the Danforth when the closures are coming up on the Broadview side to sweeten the pot to get people to come and shop there.
“It’s going to be tough and I feel like we got to do everything to support the businesses, which we have through the pandemic and now after the pandemic with this kind of construction.”
She also said she hopes construction workers and anyone working on the project will be encouraged to shop at local businesses affected.
