No more train trauma for Adelaide Street commuters
London, Ont. is a city of rivers and rail, and they are no friends to commuters.
Now those commuters are getting a little relief from some of the train trauma.
A turning point came at 10:18 a.m. on Friday, April 19, 2024; The last time rail crossing arms were dropped down to stop traffic on Adelaide Street North near Central Avenue.
One of the last people caught in traffic waiting for a train at that location was David Saunders.
"Wow, that's amazing. I can't believe that,” Saunders told CTV News after stepping out of his vehicle during the lengthy delay. “I've been in this city for almost 20 years and I've been stopped for many trains and this is one of the last times. That's fascinating."
As Saunders and others were waiting in the northbound lanes, southbound traffic was paraded through the new Adelaide Street rail underpass; led by members of the construction team. Many people honked their horns in an apparent tribute to the workers.
While some became the first to use the underpass, others became the last to deal with a train delay at the notorious crossing on April 19, 2024. (Gerry Dewan/CTV News London)
Jennie Dann, London’s director of Construction and Infrastructure, was on site as the underpass was opened, "The wow factor is certainly with the underpass itself but even our first year of construction we had a full year of work to do in preparation before we could even start excavating the main structure."
Anyone not from London may question why an underpass would generate so much interest. The challenge was that the crossing is adjacent to the CPKC rail yard in London and train shunting caused repeated and unpredictable delays on Adelaide Street.
"We're really glad that we can go out onto Adelaide and just zip down,” said Richard. He lives on Lorne Avenue, not far from the construction site. He would drop by during daily walks, getting ongoing updates and lessons about the project from construction crews. “I thought it was just an underpass, dig a hole, build it, and go underneath."
Richard found out it was much more than that, learning about the challenges of pumping water out of below-grade roadways, along with getting an understanding of how sewer, water, and communication lines had to be handled.
One lane of traffic in each direction is now open, passing under the CPKC rail line going over Adelaide Street, seen on April 19, 2024. (Gerry Dewan/CTV News London)
The project came in at $87 million, with $11 million coming from the feds and the province. Dann said one of the goals was to ensure the underpass wasn't just built for cars, "It will benefit Londoners whether you walk, bike, take transit, or drive. We're really excited about the way it's going to connect the neighbourhood."
The underpass currently has one lane of traffic heading in each direction, but City of London Construction Project Manager Max Kireev said crews will continue to work toward their ultimate goal, "…to have the two lanes of traffic in each direction a little later this summer, closer to the fall of this year. I want to say probably closer to the end of October you will see four lanes going under."
There are also plans for seating areas, planter boxes, and connections to nearby McMahen Park.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 aboard scuba boat
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.
Southern Alberta store broken into by burly black bear
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
Triple murder or manslaughter? Sudbury jury deliberating fate of man responsible for fatal firebombing
After a lengthy series of instructions from Justice Dan Cornell, a Sudbury jury is deliberating whether to find a suspect guilty of three counts of manslaughter or three counts of murder.
OPP's mandatory alcohol screening during traffic stops 'not acceptable': CCLA
A spike in impaired driving-related collisions has caused Ontario’s provincial police to begin enforcing mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) at all traffic stops in the Greater Toronto Area -- a move one civil rights group says is ‘not acceptable.’