St. Clair Avenue construction has East York residents worried about increased traffic on residential streets
By MATTHEW STEPHENS
Back in 2021, the City of Toronto embarked on a development project to make improvements to address basement flooding, pedestrian safety and improve traffic flow along O’Connor Drive from Glenwood Crescent to Bermondsey Road in East York.
With the final stage of the basement flooding project now underway on St. Clair Avenue East, local residents are concerned about traffic and pedestrian safety impacts in the community.
They are especially worried about traffic impacted by lane reductions on St. Clair Avenue East and O’ Connor Drive, looking to take shortcuts through residential streets in the area to avoid congestion.
The final phase of the construction project, which is taking place in the Topham Park neighbourhood of East York, began early March of this year and is expected to be completed in four segments of construction.
The construction will make improvements to storm and sanitary sewers on St. Clair Avenue East between Glenwood Crescent and Squires Avenue, as well as improving other nearby residential streets.
Development will replace the water main, improve intersection safety along Westview Boulevard, and implement a rain garden for the median of Valor Boulevard.
Facilitated by the Basement Flooding Protection Program (BFPP) and Toronto city staff, the project designated the site as a high-risk area for basement flooding during heavy rainfall after a major rainfall event occurred 20 years ago, resulting in widespread flooding in basements across the city.
An environmental assessment identified the region surrounding O’Connor Drive and St. Clair Avenue East as the first of 67 regions in the city in need of sewer upgrades and improved overland drainage solutions.
The project to address basement flooding came with a slew of other improvements to O’Connor Drive, including reconstructing the roads, developing new curbs and sidewalks, building a new public plaza at the intersection of O’Connor Drive and St. Clair Avenue East, road safety improvements, redesigning the streetscape with new features, and implementing new green infrastructure to help with stormwater management.
The construction project was intended to be completed in three phases, the first of which involved storm sewer upgrades on a segment of Glenwood Crescent, and sanitary sewer upgrades on a segment of St. Clair Avenue East, which were completed back in 2021.
The second phase of the project, which started in fall of 2022 and went several months past its anticipated completion deadline, sparked public disapproval from local residents, who expressed frustration due to a drawn-out construction process and what they said was lack of effective communication from city staff.
According to a Beach Metro Community News story from Nov. 28 last year about a community meeting on the construction work, city staff said the project deadline changed due to an “added watermain replacement discovered once excavation revealed the state of the existing watermain.”
The Nov. 21, 2024, community meeting with residents, city staff, and the BFPP was held at the request of Beaches-East York Councillor Brad Bradford to address public concerns with the program.
Among the many concerns from residents at the meeting – including lack of engagement from city staff to address complaints – was that traffic congestion and overflow grievances plagued the previous segment of construction.
Many residents stated at the Nov. 21 meeting that the reduction of traffic lanes along O’Connor Drive resulted in excessive traffic overflow onto side streets in the area without any adequate traffic enforcement to mitigate safety risks.
Without effective changes to the next stage of development, residents said they feared the same issues afflicting the previous phase of construction will persist.
“It now appears that lessons have not been learned with the previous phases and the follow up consultation involving residents has not been taken seriously,” said a local resident in a recent email to Beach Metro Community News about this next phase of construction. “We anticipate the same mess as evidenced by recent posted signage directing traffic through our neighbourhood, confusing matters with restricted turning hours.”
Just this morning on May 21, that resident reported high volumes of unregulated traffic along Glenwood Crescent due to traffic overflow at O’Connor and St. Clair. The resident said police have been in the area at times to enforce the restricted turning hours, but were not in the area this morning.
At the Nov. 21 meeting, manager of BFPP Rachele Joseph said city officials were “actively looking at ways we can improve” and that they would “provide more checks and balances,” in future segments of the project.
During the meeting, Bradford called out city staff’s lack of engagement with residents and the project’s field ambassador, acknowledging that execution of the first two segments of construction “has not been great.”
He also called out the project’s field ambassador for not acting as an effective liaison between the community and project contractor. “We have got to hold these guys to a higher standard,” said Bradford.
“We need better oversight from the City of Toronto of these contractors to make sure they are actually delivering a better level of accountability,” said Bradford in the Nov. 28 Beach Metro Community News story on the meeting.
In a May 13 statement sent to Beach Metro Community News, Bradford said he expects the next stage of work to be “better executed” to prevent disruption among residents and commuters in the area.
“The Basement Flooding Protection Program is a vital infrastructure upgrade, but the first phases of this work were poorly managed, and too disruptive to residents with inadequate communication. I’ve made that crystal clear to city staff, and held a public meeting last fall for residents to share their experiences from the previous phases of work directly with staff, and hear how they would be changing the approach for the next phase of work,” said Bradford in the May 13 statement.
“My expectation is clear that this next phase must be better executed.”
He mentioned that he will be hosting a community meeting May 29 at 6:30 p.m. at O’Connor Public School to engage with residents and allow them to provide feedback directly to city staff.
