All lanes reopen on DVP as first stage of bridge repair completed ahead of schedule

Entire project expected to be complete by October, city officials say

Cbc.ca
August 19, 2019
Lisa Naccarato

City of Toronto officials have some good news for drivers in Toronto this weekend as the first and most disruptive stage of bridge repair along Don Valley has been completed ahead of schedule.

Early Saturday morning, the city will re-open all north and southbound lanes of the Don Valley Parkway at Lawrence Avenue East, ending the first stage of the project.

Since July 2, lanes along the highway were reduced at Don Mills Road, Spanbridge Road, Wynford Drive and Lawrence Avenue East to repair bridges at those four locations. The lanes at Lawrence were the last to reopen.

"We are undertaking work on four bridges simultaneously, so it is very complex and we're pleased with the progress" said Michael D'Andrea, the city's chief engineer for the city.

"We finished the Don Mills stage one work 2 weeks ahead of schedule. A month ago, we finished work on Spanbridge, as well as Wynford Drive and this phase on Lawrence we finished a few days ahead of schedule."

On average, 135 thousand people use the DVP every day and D'Andrea knows drivers have been frustrated with lane closures.

"We knew going into stage one , the lane restrictions at all four bridges was going to be extremely disruptive and our commitment was to free up those lanes as quickly as we could and we have," he told CBC Toronto.

"We've had very good weather and a good project management team managing the project, so the stars have lined up."

While the major lane closures have ended, drivers will have to face at least one more slow down from midnight to 7 o'clock Sunday morning.

"We will reduce the traffic along the DVP to one lane in each direction so that workers can actually move the concrete barriers to separate the new work zone, being the shoulder areas, and separate that from the live lanes of traffic", said D'Andrea.

 Stage 2 of the project will include these ramp closures:

• The northbound DVP on-ramp from eastbound Lawrence Avenue East and the southbound DVP on-ramp from westbound Lawrence Avenue East.
• The southbound DVP on-ramp from northbound Don Mills Road.
• The northbound and southbound shoulders of the DVP will be closed at Don Mills Road, Spanbridge Road, Wynford Drive and Lawrence Avenue East.

The city expects all of the DVP bridge work to be completed by October.