People who drive for a living lament the 'messed up' state of construction downtown
The City of London says this is a 'record-breaking year' for construction
In the 26 years since Abdullah Shirzad moved to London, Ont., the taxi driver said he's never seen so much summer construction in one place.
"Downtown is very small. It's important, too — we have to pass through downtown to get from north to south, or east to west," the 50-year-old Yellow Taxi driver said.
Since 2018, downtown London has seen major construction aimed at improving underground and transit infrastructure that's meant an ever-changing array of road closures, including two bridge replacements.
At times, the core has looked more like a moonscape than a central business district, with pedestrians and drivers contending on a daily basis with the clamour of excavators, open pits and clouds of dust.
As he talks, Shirzad's cab chirps as his company's dispatch notifies drivers of clients looking for a ride. One by one, Shirzad turns them down, including one on the other side of where the bridge is out on Ridout Street.
'This year, it's horrible'
"Because of the construction, I can't get to that point because, to get there, it's going to be 10 to 15 minutes."
"We lose business," he said. "This year it's horrible."
"Horrible" is one way to describe it. City Hall uses the phrase a "record-breaking year." That not just in terms of scope, but cost. All told, there are $200 million worth of projects, including 80 km of roadways, 20 km of sewers, 12 km of water mains and work at 25 intersections.
The city keeps an interactive map of all current and upcoming work and an infrasturcture project map of the year's projects, including its 10 biggest. But this year, the maps are so busy it's difficult to make sense of, much like navigating the construction itself.
"In order to get from anywhere to anywhere else, you have to make detours," Sieg Pedde, the founder of London's Helix Courier Limited, told CBC Radio One's Afternoon Drive when asked about getting around London these days.
"You have to drive sometimes the other direction first to, you know, drive around something."
Pedde knows a thing or two about the courier business because he's been in it for half a century. In his own words, he's delivered "everything that's deliverable" and has witnessed technology reshape the business, from fax machines eliminating the delivery of paperwork to emails replacing delivery of proofs for graphic design.
WATCH | Sieg Pedde talks about the challenges of delivery during construction:
Through every single one of his 55 years, however, construction has always been a factor in the delivery business.
"Over the years, many, many times you have all the major arteries carved up in one place or another," he said. "This is not unusual."
What is unusual, at least this year, is how much construction there is.
When Pedde hires drivers, he looks for what he calls "cowboys" — men and women who are lone wolves, able to "shrug it off" when it comes to the pressure cooker combination of tight deadlines and traffic gridlock.
Even they have nothing kind to say about the current state of London's road network.
"There were, of course, some impolite words used. I would not repeat them, but London is pretty messed up."
His biggest complaint? Downtown doesn't have enough parking.
"Either all the loading zones are filled up or there aren't enough of them. S,o if they have to walk a block to get to a client, it eats up time."
Despite the headaches, Pedde said he doesn't blame City Hall. Instead, he said, it's up to companies like his to come up with their own solutions when it comes to the serpentine labyrinth of construction, by using technology, communication and their bare wits.
After all, he said, getting the package from point A to point B is what he's paid to do.
"There's always [opportunity for] a service like ours. Door-to-door, desk-to-desk, in fact."
LISTEN | The ever-changing business of delivery on CBC Afternoon Drive:
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with files from Travis Dolynny, Allison Devereaux and Afternoon Drive