One of the longest lasting street closures in Toronto will finally come to an end when Leslie Street partially reopens to traffic between Queen Street and Eastern Avenue on Saturday.
Portions of the east-end road have been closed off for almost two years to allow for watermain replacement work and other utility relocation work required as part of the construction of the new Leslie barns streetcar storage yard but as of Saturday morning, three out of four lanes will be open to traffic, according to TTC Spokesperson Brad Ross.
The Leslie Street barns project was initially expected to be completed by 2014 but has been plagued by numerous delays.
The latest delay in May saw the reopening of Leslie Street pushed back for another few months after the TTC discovered that about 60 metres of streetcar track had been laid down about nine centimetres too high and would have to be ripped up and reinstalled.
“I just wonder was nobody checking to see if it was three inches too high or three inches too low the entire time this was being done? That’s a management question,” Mayor John Tory said at the time. “You can’t blame it entirely on the contractor.”
The Leslie Street barns are not expected to be opened until September. Likewise, the streetcar tracks themselves won't be open until overhead wire is installed along the road later this summer. In a news release issued on Friday, the TTC said that all landscaping in the area will be completed next spring and will include the planting of trees and shrubs.
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