Commuters can expect more Gardiner Expressway construction in Toronto starting in April, and it will be 13 months before the lane closures are cleared.
The City of Toronto announced on Monday that it will begin the next stage of the Gardiner Expressway Strategic Rehabilitation Plan this month, carrying out “critical repair work” on five bridges along the artery.
Construction crews will descend on a stretch of the westbound Gardiner Expressway between Park Lawn Road and Grand Avenue for the repair work starting next week, which will involve lane reductions lasting for approximately 13 months.
Starting on Monday, April 7, westbound traffic on the Gardiner will be reduced from four lanes down to three.
Work will temporarily pause from May to July 2026 as part of the City’s traffic management strategy for the FIFA World Cup, and resume with an expected November 2026 completion date.
Funding from the provincial government will cover the replacement of overpasses at Park Lawn Road and Mimico Creek, and the westbound on-ramp from Park Lawn Road over Mimico Creek. Cash for this round of repairs was secured as part of the Ontario-Toronto New Deal inked between Premier Doug Ford and Mayor Olivia Chow in 2023, which saw the province agree to upload the Gardiner.
Following the completion of this phase Gardiner repairs, work is scheduled to take place for the remainder of Section 3 of the project the following year.
Rehabilitation work on this portion of the Gardiner Expressway, stretching from Highway 427 to the Humber River, is scheduled to take place from 2027 to 2031.
However, the five bridges that will be repaired in the lead-up to FIFA 2026 were identified as in need of critical repairs that couldn’t wait for the surrounding stretch of highway to undergo repairs.
In addition to the long-term lane restrictions, eastbound lanes will be narrowed between Grand Avenue and Park Lawn Road until November 2026, though all lanes of traffic will remain active.
Overpasses spanning Kipling and Islington avenues will both be reduced from three lanes to two in each direction from April until November 2025.
Park Lawn’s route under the Gardiner will be reduced by a single lane for four months, while Park Lawn’s on-ramp to the westbound Gardiner will be closed from November 2025 to April 2026 for replacement of a bridge lane spanning Mimico Creek.
Among the City’s strategies to fast-track this project and minimize impacts on traffic, several congestion-management measures like traffic monitoring and real-time adjustments will be employed, while construction crews will be enabled to work 24 hours a day.
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