Toronto’s Main Highway Is Shutting Down For 3 Days Next Week And You Should Just Avoid The City Altogether
Mark your calendars and come up with a plan to get out of the city next weekend because Toronto's main highway is going to completely closed for three days.
The Gardiner, which runs through the city from the QEW to the DVP, is used by an average of 350,000 drivers every single day. The major highway will be shut down for annual maintenance from October 26th to the 29th, which is specifically a Friday night to a Monday morning.
The Gardiner Expwy will be closed Oct 26 at 11pm until Oct 29 at 5am for maintenance and improvements. Plan your trip now using @TTCnotices or @GOtransit Visit https://t.co/otKvsocLqk#CityofTO#TrafficAlertTO.@TO_Transport@TO_Gardiner_LS@wazepic.twitter.com/DJAi8CNdTs
The city is warning people about this huge closure in advance since traffic will undoubtedly be a complete nightmare.
Since people won't be able to take the Gardiner, an obvious alternative is to take Lakeshore Boulevard, which runs the same route but below the Gardiner and has a lot more stop-lights. While the city says this is an option for people, they actually recommend TTC and GO Transit to get around instead, according to their announcement.
This isn't the first time this type of closure has happened. In fact, this is annual maintenance that happens at least once, sometimes twice a year on Toronto's major expressways. However, last year the city took a different approach to the closures.
Last fall, rather than committing to a full weekend closure, John Tory announced that they would be closing the Gardiner every evening for four consecutive nights which, at the time, he called a significant improvement. Given that they've gone back to the old system this year, it suggests that last year's experiment didn't work.
The maintenance this year could include anything from paving, sealing cracks, and re-painting lines to removing graffiti, doing bridge inspections, and repairing overhead signs.
The closures will begin at 11 PM on Friday, October 26th and will end at 5 AM on Monday, October 29th.
