3 years of construction on the Gardiner starts next week — but it's not clear who'll pay for it

The Gardiner Expressway is set to undergo another round of repair work, marking the beginning of three years of new construction and traffic.

But it's not clear who will foot the roughly $300 million bill or how it will be split up — despite the deal brokered last fall by Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow and Ontario Premier Doug Ford that uploaded responsibility of the expressway from the city to the province.

"The conversations regarding the upload are underway," said Jodie Atkins, the city's director of bridges and expressways, at a news conference Tuesday. She said the contract has already been awarded by the city.

"Those details will be part of those discussions."

Replacing the bridge structure, repairing the structures underneath the expressway and adding a new traffic system between Dufferin Street and Strachan Avenue are part of the second phase of the city's six-part plan to save the aging highway.

Residents traveling to and from the city should expect some of these changes to kick in starting next week, with construction primarily scheduled to take place from Monday to Saturday, from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.

The city said the following areas will be affected:

However, the city said it plans to keep traffic flowing on specific days and events. All lanes will be open over the Easter weekend, March 29 to March 31, and on April 6 to April 8. Additionally, from May 2026 to July 2026, the Gardiner will be fully open to accommodate increased traffic expected during the FIFA World Cup.

"The Gardner Expressway, you know, is 60 years old and it's time for us to make these major repairs," said Jennifer Graham Harkness, the city's chief engineer and executive director of engineering and construction.

The city is unsure if this is the last major Gardiner project it will oversee, Harkness confirmed.  

"We don't know what our next steps are," she said, adding the two sides are undergoing a "due diligence exercise."

"We're working to make sure that our contractor operates as efficiently and effectively as possible to get the work done."

Roger Browne, the city's director of traffic management, says roughly 200,000 cars flow through this section of the Gardiner.

He said the city's plan to manage congestion includes traffic diversions, signage, traffic agents on site and real-time monitoring that will give the city data it can use to make changes to traffic signal timings.