October City Council Recap
Major items at City Council this week included the Vacant Home Tax, island airport and traffic congestion management.
City of Toronto co-ordinating road closures, speeding up road work and improving infrastructure during busy 2017 construction season
"We want construction season to go as smoothly as possible for drivers, cyclists and pedestrians," said Mayor John Tory. "That's why I've urged staff to speed up construction projects across the city and take other steps aimed at minimizing congestion and disruption."
The City is taking action to minimize traffic congestion during the construction season by extending hours for key projects, bundling projects, implementing signal-timing changes on parallel routes and enhancing signage at work locations. Work hours will be extended for 32 construction projects, including overnight work at nine locations and 24/7 work at another seven locations.
"Like last year, 2017 is going to be a busy year on our roads for construction," said Councillor Jaye Robinson (Ward 25 Don Valley West), Chair of the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee. "This is critical work that needs to be undertaken to maintain our infrastructure in a good state of repair, and we're working hard on all fronts to minimize disruption for residents and get the construction done as quickly and efficiently as possible."
The City will invest almost $700 million to maintain and upgrade its infrastructure, including an estimated $310 million for roads, expressways and bridges, $310 million for sewers and watermains, and $70 million for basement flooding protection in 2017.
Major projects planned for this year include:
demolition of the eastbound ramp from the Gardiner Expressway to York/Bay/Yonge Streets and building a new ramp at Lower Simcoe Street
watermain work, TTC streetcar track replacement and road resurfacing on Wellington Street from Church Street to York Street
TTC track replacement, watermain work and road resurfacing on Dundas Street from Yonge Street to Church Street
road resurfacing on Birchmount Road from McNicoll Avenue to Steeles Avenue East
road resurfacing and watermain work on Don Mills Road from north of Lawrence Avenue to Wynford Drive
road resurfacing on Burnhamthorpe Road from Dundas Street West to Martin Grove Road
road resurfacing on Lake Shore Boulevard from Leslie Street to Woodbine Avenue
bridge rehabilitation work for Queensway Bridge over the Humber River, and
TTC track work at the intersection of Queen Street and McCaul Street.
As a result of the construction, it is expected that the City will complete about 130 kilometres of road resurfacing work and 310 kilometres of sewer and watermain work in 2017.
This work is part of the City's comprehensive, co-ordinated strategy to rehabilitate and upgrade Toronto's roads, transit and underground infrastructure for current and future needs.
The City continues its efforts to fill potholes. More than 185,000 potholes were repaired last year. Residents are asked to use the City's online service at http://www.toronto.ca/311 to report potholes so crews can be assigned to fix them quickly. On the web page, simply click on "roads" to create a pothole service request or click "open 311API and mobile apps" to download a mobile app to your smartphone.
To help motorists plan their way around, the City has a web-based map at http://www.toronto.ca/roadrestrictions identifying ongoing and emergency road construction, travel conditions on Toronto roads and special events that affect roads.
Information about the City's planned capital construction work affecting roads is available at http://www.toronto.ca/inview.
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