Mayor balks at years-long road closures in Ontario line plan

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It’s a song Toronto city council has heard many times before.

Plans to subject downtown Toronto to nearly a decade of gridlock for Ontario Line subway construction landed with a bit of a thud during Tuesday’s executive committee meeting, with some councillors asking if more could be done to prevent years-long closures of core thoroughfares.

The report calls for a 4 1/2-year closure of a 320-metre stretch of Queen St. between Bay and Victoria Sts. to accommodate expansion of the existing Queen subway station for the 16-kilometre, 15-stop subway project.

Councillor James Pasternak, who was involved in two previous Metrolinx road closure requests for the Finch West and Eglinton Crosstown LRT projects,

“In both situations, the requests to fully-close those intersections were denied — and life went on,” he remarked.

“The constriction continues to proceed, the projects will be done, commerce continues to move, traffic continues to move.”

Ashley Curtis, of the city’s transportation services department, said Toronto officials are working with their counterparts at Metrolinx to reduce closures to bare minimums.

Curtis added a “cut-and-cover” approach for Queen is actually the best way to complete the station — adding that “partial closure” options outlined in the report would extend timelines by six months and cost an extra $200 million.

“It actually didn’t make a great deal of difference,” Curtis said when comparing traffic impacts between a partial and full closure.

“Essentially you’re taking Queen St. down to what would effectively be one lane only, so the traffic diversions you see under the full closure would still be occurring.”

Mayor John Tory balked at forecasted downtown travel delays, including the possibility of an increase that would see motorists taking an hour to navigate the usual 22-minute drive across Richmond St.

“Is there any practical way to avoid a 51-minute venture across the city,” Tory asked.

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“Have people looked creatively if you can do other things with other streets, make some changes?”

Curtis said the report’s numbers are conservative — and collaboration between the city and Metrolinx continues.

“We have to do better while we build,” Tory said.

Tory’s call to direct city officials to work to reduce closures passed, and city council will make a  final decision on closures next week.

bpassifiume@postmedia.com
On Twitter:  @bryanpassifiume