The intersection of King Street East and Church Street will be fully closed to all traffic starting on Monday, about four weeks earlier than initially expected.
Last month, the City of Toronto and TTC began working to replace sections of the 142-year-old watermains and rebuild pipes and streetcar tracks at King and Church streets resulting in traffic being reduced to one lane in each direction.
The city said that “unexpected underground conflicts” on the south side of King necessitated changes to the construction approach, as part of the watermain that was originally planned to be replaced will now be “relined to extend its service life.”
To stay on schedule, the watermain work and advance streetcar track replacement will be done in tandem.
As a result, the TTC will implement a number of diversions, notably the 504C and 504D/304D King routes, around the intersection due to the construction.
As with the full closure, this routing change is also happening earlier than planned, with buses diverting via Jarvis, Front, (eastbound), Wellington (westbound), and Yonge streets.
Existing diversions to the 503/303 Kingston Rd and the 504/304 King streetcars will remain as they are.
The 504 King streetcar, meanwhile, will divert both ways via Shaw Street and the 503 Kingston Road streetcar will continue to divert via Spadina and Queen, running west on King Street to the Dufferin Loop.
This expedited work schedule will now mean that the intersection is expected to reopen by mid-August.
The construction work, which is needed to bring this infrastructure to a state of good repair and is part of the City Council’s approved 2025 Capital Works Program, was to originally ramp up in July and conclude in late August.
