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Frustration with the seemingly endless construction along the east and west extensions of the Confederation Line LRT boiled over Friday at city hall.
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“I’m trying to be Pollyanna to everyone — saying, ‘This is going to be great for the community’ — but five years of construction has been hard on the neighbourhood,” Bay Ward Coun. Theresa Kavanagh said at a meeting of the city’s light-rail sub-committee.
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Crews are working along Richmond Road on the cut-and-cover tunnel from Sherbourne Road to Lincoln Fields, forcing detours on to Ambleside and McEwen avenues and along Byron Avenue. On top of that, “complete street” roadwork to redo sidewalks, bike lanes, sewers and other utilities along Richmond is only adding to the misery.
“This is turning side streets into arterial roads, and it’s happening overnight,,” Kavanagh said.
Maggie Freitas, who’s run her Flowers by Maggie shop for 27 years in a plaza at 911 Richmond Rd., likened it to being in prison.
“It’s been a disastrous. People can’t find us. They get lost. People are really angry,” Freitas said in a phone interview with the Citizen. Freitas said business is down by 40 or 50 per cent for all the shops in the complete street construction zone.
“People don’t even walk by. People call and say ‘Sorry Maggie, I can’t come to you. I can’t walk in. It’s not safe. I’m going to go somewhere else,’” she said.
Freitas said she asked Mayor Mark Sutcliffe for some sort of property tax break, but was told no. She said “Local Traffic Only” signs are killing business and the signs listing that businesses are still open is too small to read.
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“The LRT construction is a mess, but it didn’t hurt business. Now, the road construction along this two-kilometre stretch, it’s like we’re in jail. No one is listening to us.”
Construction in the east end to Trim Road mostly follows Regional Road 174, but it too is causing headaches for residents, especially in the Convent Glen-Orléans Woods area, said Orléans West-Innes Coun. Laura Dudas.
“It’s had a disruptive impact — a destructive impact,” Dudas told the committee.
“These two communities are undergoing this extreme amount of construction. And just when we thought the stations were the only impact they’re going to have, we had a roundabout dropped in our lap at the 11th hour,” she said, referring to the city announcement in the spring that a new roundabout would be built on Jeanne d’Arc Boulevard where it means Vineyard and Fortune drives.
Richard Holder, director of rail construction for the city, did his best to reassure councillors.
“We’re trying to focus on maintaining parking when we can, maintaining access when we can, ensuring pedestrians have safe access to the businesses,” Holder said, in response to Kavanagh’s comments.
“We’ll continue to have the dialogue and if there are things we need to improve upon, we’re here to listen,” he said.
Ultimately, however, the work needs to get done, said transit general manager Renée Amilcar.
“What we’re doing is massive,” Amilcar told reporters after the meeting. “We cannot do everything and expect it to not interrupt service. We’re here to listen and to try to find solutions, however, at the end of the day we have to do our job and it will have impacts.”
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