Metrolinx cancels Bathurst St. intersection closure amid uproar

Thestar.com
Jan 16, 2019
David Rider

Facing a community uproar, transportation agency Metrolinx has cancelled a plan to close Bathurst Ave. near Eglinton Ave. for seven months.

The provincial agency issued a statement Wednesday afternoon amid warnings of traffic chaos on top of ongoing delays from construction of the Eglinton crosstown light-rail line.

Transportation agency Metrolinx has cancelled a plan to close Bathurst Ave. near Eglinton for seven months.

“Metrolinx and Crosslinx recognize the concerns of the community and the local councillors, and have decided not to pursue the proposal to close Bathurst St. one block north of Eglinton Ave. W.,” the notice states. “The permit application to the City of Toronto for this work has been withdrawn.”

Metrolinx had said Bathurst between Eglinton and Wembley Rd. needed to be closed between December and June to allow the construction of Forest Hill station, one of 25 planned stops on the 19-kilometre line.

The lengthy closure was worth the commuter pain because it would cut the duration of construction on the street by almost half, eliminate the need to reconfigure the intersection several times over the course of the work, and improve safety conditions at the site, the agency said.

But the closure was postponed after community members and leaders including Councillor Josh Matlow panned it. Matlow, who newly represents this area, said residents he spoke to overwhelmingly felt it was not worth completely shutting down the intersection for seven months in order to speed up construction by three months.

“The vast majority of residents realize that there will be inconvenience and disruption during a major works project,” he said. “They get that. But in fairness to the residents, because of that reality, they have been putting up for many years with long queues of cars on their streets and incredibly heavy traffic.”

Closing the intersection would only have sped up the completion of construction at that intersection specifically. How the construction gets done has no impact on the overall completion of the Crosstown, Matlow said.

He said the unilateral announcement by Metrolinx and Crosslinx, the group of construction companies building the project, was made without even consulting the local councillors and also came as a surprise.

“We didn’t know about this until we received a notice saying things were happening,” he said. “And I think the way they went about I really took the community off guard too.”

Metrolinx planned to proceed with a Wednesday evening public meeting, 7 p.m. at Beth Tzedec Congregation at 1700 Bathurst St., to hear resident’s input “on this critical infrastructure project.”