Adelaide Street underpass inches closer with third public meeting

City staff will unveil their preferred design for the planned Adelaide Street underpass at a public information session planned for later this month, moving forward a project aimed at clearing what has become a notorious traffic bottleneck for London drivers. 

The information session will be held at Beal Secondary School on Thursday, April 26, from 4 to 7 p.m.

Staff are expected to present their preferred design for the underpass that will route traffic under the Canadian Pacific Railway tracks. The busy four-lane road and high-traffic rail line currently meet at a grade crossing on Adelaide just south of Oxford Street East. 

Frequent delays

In addition to frequent delays caused by long freight trains, it's not uncommon for trains to block the intersection for 10 minutes or more while they are switched at CP's yard, which lies just east of the crossing. 

It all adds up to traffic headaches on Adelaide, a key north-south artery that carries up to 25,000 vehicles a day. A city report says trains block the crossing up to 43 times on a typical day, leading to blockages of up to 126 minutes over a 24-hour period.

The city had originally planned to have some kind of grade separation in place by 2031, but moved to fast-track the project in 2013. 

The tentative timeline is to have the underpass in place by 2022 or 2023, depending on how smoothly the approval process goes and how easily logistical issues can be worked out with CP. 

Pricetag now tops $60 million

As for the price tag, a city report in 2013 pegged the cost at $25 million. 

Last summer Ward 6 Coun. Phil Squire said he wouldn't be surprised if the cost has now climbed above $35-million. City staff now estimate the underpass will cost almost $60 million.

Squire has suggested CP might pick up some of the cost, because removing the grade crossing would benefit their operations and improve safety.

In a statement sent to CBC last year, CP pointed to these federal government guidelines which spell out how costs are typically shared in underpass projects. In cases where the city and railway can't agree on a split in construction and maintenance costs, the Canadian Transportation Agency makes a ruling.

The guidelines state that in situations where the need for the crossing benefits both the road operator and the railway, a 50-50 split is common.

Squire said it's not uncommon for costs to jump sharply after engineers start to flesh out the details of large infrastructure projects. 

Despite the price increase, Squire said the underpass project is too important to be delayed over fears about sticker-shock. 

"I think people have accepted this project is important enough that we need to go ahead with it," he said. "The city is going to have to find the money to do this."