Fans planning on driving to the Leafs game tomorrow or the Jays games over the weekend may want to give themselves some extra time to get there.

The replacement of a gas pipeline has shut down multiple lanes of Lake Shore Boulevard near the Rogers Centre and Scotiabank Arena.

Two eastbound lanes on Lake Shore leading up to Rees Street will be closed until May 3, however the City of Toronto says the closure will be temporarily cleared on Thursday in advance of Game 5 of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ first round playoff series against the Tampa Bay Lightning. 

Further east on Lakeshore, two westbound lanes and one eastbound lane between Yonge and Jarvis streets have been closed all week and will remain closed until May 6.

The lane closures come before three weekend Toronto Blue Jays games against the Seattle Mariners at Rogers Centre on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The pipeline, being replaced by Enbridge Gas, is a 20-inch, high-pressure gas pipeline which runs along Lake Shore between Cherry and Bathurst Streets.

“The project requires the replacement of approximately 4.5 km of pipeline and related facilities. The City of Toronto is facilitating this important work to ensure the safety and reliability of pipeline infrastructure,” the City of Toronto said in a release.

“The current pipeline, which was installed in the 1950s, provides natural gas to critical customers, including hospitals, who count on a reliable, dependable energy source for their daily operations.”

The city says it will deploy additional traffic agents to the affected areas and will continually monitor traffic volumes on Lake Shore.

“City staff will implement the necessary signal timing modifications required to reduce delays and keep traffic moving,” it said.