Mayor promises plan to speed up Gardiner work coming within weeks

Mayor Olivia Chow says an urgent, behind-the-scenes collaboration is underway between the city and province to speed up the Gardiner Expressway rebuild and ease traffic pain for drivers.

Chow made the remarks in a wide-ranging interview with CBC Toronto's municipal affairs reporter, Shawn Jeffords, nearly a year after being sworn in as mayor. Chow says the three-year construction project that started earlier this year will be sped up by the combined efforts of both governments, cutting time off the complex expressway rebuild.

"We've met with the province, with the experts, and we are coordinating an approach," she said. "It's coming soon, within the next couple of weeks."

Chow and Premier Doug Ford struck a "new deal" last year that provides the city billions in financial relief and will see Ontario take responsibility the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway. The mayor said the deal will free up billions in the city's capital budget to fund state-of-good-repair projects around Toronto. 

The Gardiner rebuild has angered and frustrated commuters in recent months as lane reductions and closures have snarled traffic. That has led to calls to explore how to accelerate the project by working overnight and on weekends, as well as pre-fabricating parts of the expressway in another location and installing it in pieces. 

Chow said the plan, which will be announced in the weeks ahead, will include new traffic management strategies and use of technology to accelerate the project.

"We could do the construction faster, rebuild it faster," she said. "It's coming."