Mayor announces Gardiner construction will finish 2 months sooner

WATCH: Mayor John Tory is investing $2 million more to the Gardiner Expressway construction to help end the work 2 months early.

TORONTO – The City of Toronto will spend an additional $2 million to fast track construction work on the eastern portion of the Gardiner Expressway.

Toronto Mayor John Tory announced Thursday morning that the money will go towards increasing crew and equipment resources in order to cut the completion time by two months.

Read More:  Major construction projects to begin on Gardiner Expressway

“It’s a relatively small price to pay to allow drivers relief two months sooner,” said Tory. “While weather can still delay the work, I’m confident it can be done.”

The section of the Gardiner from the CNE to Grand Magazine Street, just east of Bathurst, is expected to be finished by May.

Tory said he met with staff on the matter and pushed for a quicker solution to the Gardiner’s congestion woes.

READ MORE: Gardiner closures: Give crews incentive to finish early, expert says

“When you have the skilled public service we have, sitting down, and given a push, you can bring about improvements,” he said.

Tory said congestion delays on the Gardiner cost the city $1 million a day and the investment is well worth the cost.

“There’s a real level of frustration if you use the Gardiner with the construction,” deputy mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong said. “This is a real solution to a problem.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "There's a real level of frustration if you use the Gardiner with the construction," deputy mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong said. "This is a real solution to a problem."

City staff have been looking at options for speeding up construction since last year, Minnan-Wong said, but it took time to work the plan through the city’s bureaucracy.

That being said, Waterfront Toronto is studying the future of the Gardiner Expressway. Right now, the organization’s recommended option is to tear down the portion of the Gardiner east of Jarvis.

Andrew Hilton, director of communications for Waterfront Toronto, said the organization is looking into ways to reduce the increase in predicted travel times should the expressway be torn down.

At the same time, they are looking at a hybrid option: tearing down a portion of the expressway while keeping part of it up.  The hybrid option would also open up a former industrial site at the mouth of the Don River that could be developed.

Waterfront Toronto released a report in February that outlined the four options for the Gardiner: tearing it down was the cheapest at an estimated $240 million.

Construction work on the Expressway is expected to ramp up just in time for the Pan Am Games when all lanes will reopen between May and August.

IN DEPTH: Trouble Overhead – An investigation of the Gardiner Expressway 

However, work on the western section of the highway will begin in the fall of 2015 and is expected to cause further lane reductions.

The full completion of the work to rehabilitate the deck is expected to be done by December 2016.