Driving around Toronto will be a bit more difficult this weekend with the closure of the southern end of the Don Valley Parkway and the eastern end of the Gardiner Expressway, and the city’s ongoing snow removal operations.
From Friday at 11 p.m. to Monday at 5 a.m., sections of DVP and the Gardiner will be closed to traffic to allow construction crews to move the eastern section of the new Lower Don Bridge over the DVP to its permanent location, as part of Metrolinx’s Ontario Line construction.
Below are the full closure details:
- Southbound DVP will be closed from Bayview Avenue to the Gardiner Expressway, continuing with the westbound Gardiner Expressway closed to Lower Jarvis Street
- The southbound DVP on-ramp from Bayview Avenue will be closed
- The westbound Lower Jarvis Street on-ramp will remain open
- Eastbound Gardiner Expressway will be closed from Bay Street to the DVP, continuing northbound until Eastern Avenue.
- The eastbound Gardiner Expressway on-ramps at Rees and Bay Streets will be closed
- The northbound DVP on-ramp at Don Roadway will be closed
“It is going to be a mess,” said 680 NewsRadio traffic reporter Jordan Kerr. “I would expect the DVP to be jammed from the 401 down to the closure, and eastbound Gardiner backed up from at least Park Lawn.”
For eastbound traffic, Kerr said that will put a huge strain on traffic along Lake Shore Boulevard West, which is already a busy route, and now taking all the Gardiner overflow. He adds that northbound routes downtown are going to extra slow.
“There’s construction at Spadina and Fort York Boulevard, north of Lake Shore, that always ties traffic up, and that is going to be even worse as people get off at Spadina to avoid the line up at the York/Bay/Yonge ramps.”
Kerr said for the southbound DVP traffic, the Bayview/Bloor ramp is going to be packed. He said drivers can opt to get onto southbound Bayview and follow it to River Street or Rosedale Valley Road to get to Yonge Street, or go to Bloor Street and take that route into the downtown core.
“The major roads like Bloor and Jarvis and Lake Shore should be clear of snow, but if people start taking some of the smaller streets to try and avoid traffic, they could run into narrow roads with the snow piles,” Kerr said.
On its website, Metrolinx has posted details on the closures and detours for drivers to get around the closures. For eastbound and northbound traffic, drivers will be directed to Jarvis Street and then to Queen Street to get to the DVP. For southbound traffic, drivers will be able to take Bayview Avenue to Gerrard Street, then down to Jarvis to rejoin with the Gardiner.
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For those planning to use transit instead of driving, keep in mind that Line 1 will be shut down between St. George and St. Andrew stations from 11 p.m. on Friday to Sunday for planned station work. Shuttle buses will not be operating.
As well, subway service on Line 4 between Sheppard-Yonge and Don Mills stations will be replaced by shuttle buses from Saturday to Sunday due to planned signal work.
Drivers trying to take city streets as alternate routes will have to navigate around the city’s snow removal crews blocking lanes on several streets.
