London’s downtown preparing for infrastructure overhaul

London’s downtown core is about to get a major infrastructure overhaul.

The civic works committee got an update Monday from the manager of downtown projects, Jim Yanchula, on what the department has planned.

There are two major projects getting underway in April. They include the start of My Dundas Place, which will close Dundas Street between Ridout and Wellington Streets, as well as sewer work along portions of York and Talbot Streets.

The closures will impact sections of those roads through November.

Likening it to open-heart surgery, Yanchula said they are going to open things up at street level and give the downtown infrastructure a much-needed overhaul.

“It’s really about decades worth of infrastructure connections in the downtown area,” Yanchula said.

“This is going to have impacts on how we get around, so what we need to do is be really good at communicating.”

Yanchula acknowledged that there is typically more pedestrian and vehicle traffic in the summer months and they’ll do what they can to make the process as smooth as possible.

“We’ll have face-to-face meetings, we’ll be listening and logging problems, we’ll be problem-solving in real time with our communications section.”

“It’s going to involve disruption, it’s going to involve people having proper access to their businesses. That’s our commitment about sincere, sustained, and strategic.”

Work is set to begin in April.