Downtown Loop transit project will start with King Street in spring

A three-year project to enhance the flow of transit buses in the downtown core is set to start this spring, and it won't come without some pain for drivers and business owners.

Today city engineers made public their detailed plans for the Downtown Loop, one of the three legs of London's Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system city council endorsed in 2019.

The project will create dedicated bus-only lanes along a series of streetsthat frame the downtown core: King, Wellington, Queens Avenue and Ridout.

Jennie Dann, the city engineer leading the project, says the work will mean better traffic flow for buses and other vehicles through the core while creating a central hub for the other two approved legs of BRT.

"It's part of our overall approach to try to improve transit across the city and this is really just the first piece of that," she said.

Construction will happen in three phases over three years, starting on King Street this spring.

Ramsay said the work will not only involve adding a bus-only lane, but will also include work to upgrade underground infrastructure where needed.

Howevershe said the work to replace outdated sewer and water lines is not as extensive as what happened under Dundas Street, which took two full construction seasons to complete.

"The bulk of the underground work is just the two blocks, from Richmond to Wellington," said Dann. "The two blocks from Ridout to Richmond, a lot of that work was done in the 1990s around the time when Budweiser Gardens was built."

Dann said crews will try to keep open as much of King Street as possible during construction.

"Our intent is not to have the entire four blocks dug up for the entire year," she said. "Our goal is to find ways to allow people to access parts of King Street."

The budget for the project is $28.5 million, although that doesn't include the cost of underground infrastructure work.

On King, buses will run in a dedicated transit lane on the south side of the street, which will include stops at Talbot Street at near Citi Plaza at Wellington.

Danncouldn't say exactly how many parking spaces on King will be lost to the bus lane after it's installed, but said there will be some parking on the south side of King near Ridout and near Covent Garden Market.

"Over the course of this project and other work in the downtown core there has been a net loss [in parking spaces] but we've been looking at areas on side streets to offer other options for loading and parking," she said.

The city has posted detailed drawings, videos and other informationabout the project on its website to coincide with a public consultation period that continues until Nov. 11.

• Read the project documents here

Members of the public are invited to comment, Ramsay said they will even set up online video chats to answer questions because public meetings are not possible due to COVID-19.

The project will bring street enhancements, including new benches, lighting, planters, bike racks and wayfinding to the downtown.

King Street bike lane will go

The work will mean an end to the temporary bike lane on King Street. The city's grand plan is to route all east-west bike traffic along Dundas Place. The idea here is to make use of ongoing work tobetter connect Dundas with the Thames Valley Parkway at the western edge of downtown, and a new bike laneon Dundas east of Wellington Street.

Dann said crews will work to create safe alternate routes through downtown once theKing Street bike lane is closed.

Two other legs of BRT approved by council the East London Link and the Wellington Gateway are also set to get underway in the next few years. The East Link, set to run from downtown to Fanshawe College, is a two-year project slated to start in 2022. The Wellington Gateway will take three years and is slated to begin in 2023.

Two other proposed legs of BRT running north and west from downtown were not approved by council.