24/7 Gardiner construction has resulted in travel times doubling: study
Westbound traffic is seen on the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025.
A new study says travel times on Toronto's Gardiner Expressway have doubled in just one year due to ongoing construction.
The study from Altitude by Geotab—a software company that provides mobility data analytics—says that the most congested sections of the Gardiner experienced an increased delay of about 230 per cent in 2025, while commute times along the entire expressway—from Highway 427 to Cherry Street—have doubled since construction began in 2024.
The delays along some portions of the Gardiner are even worse.
For example, the study found that it is now taking drivers 24 minutes to travel from Humber River to Strachan Avenue during peak commuting hours, which is triple the eight minute average from before construction began.
The drive from Jarvis to Dufferin streets has also nearly tripled, going from an average of 11 minutes during peak commuting hours prior to the beginning of construction to 30 minutes as of last month.
In April, the highway was reduced to two lanes in each direction between Dufferin Street and Strachan Avenue for critical rehabilitation work.
Ontario has said the construction work on the highway is ahead of schedule and set to finish more than 15 months earlier than planned.
Altitude by Geotab says their study looked at vehicles travelling on the Gardiner eastbound during the peak morning hour—7:30 a.m. – 8:30 a.m.—and westbound in the afternoon—4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.—as well as eastbound and westbound travel times during the middle of the day—11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
It found that the first three weeks of the new construction that started in mid-April this year caused travel times to increase, 'resulting in an average morning peak travel time of 40 minutes from the pre-construction 23-minute commute.'
Delays were found to be at their worst along the segment of the Gardiner that spans from Colborne Lodge Drive to just past Jameson Avenue.
Gardiner study
The map above shows increased eastbound travel times on the Gardiner Expressway towards downtown Toronto during the 7:30-8:30 a.m. rush hour, comparing pre-construction with conditions after new construction began in 2025.
'The data clearly shows the significant strain of the Gardiner Expressway construction on daily commutes and business in the Greater Toronto Area,' said Mike Branch, Vice President of Data and Analytics at Geotab, in a release on Monday.
'The traffic patterns in large cities like Toronto impact the entire region. When you add a large sporting event, concert, or other community event, you have a picture of where the bottlenecks will be. With the roadwork expected to continue next year, drivers should plan for significant delays along their commutes.'
The study said that when construction first began, those first three weeks also had the slowest travel times, but the numbers came down after drivers settled into the new routine, so if that pattern holds, commute times could lower by about five minutes in the coming weeks.
And it's not just the Gardiner being impacted by the 24/7 construction.
Altitude by Geotab says Lake Shore Boulevard has seen a 'persistent' 30 per cent average increase in travel time over the last 14 months.
According to the province, construction is slated to be complete by January 2026.
With files from CTV News Toronto's Alex Arsenych
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