Two years of BRT construction pain begins at Wellington and Commissioners this week

CTV London’s Sean Irvine says motorists are bracing for two major construction projects impacting Wellington Road and Dundas Street.

With winter in its final stages, the next season – construction season – is about to begin in London, Ont.

The City of London has several major road projects planned for the summer of 2026, but it is likely none of them will be as disruptive as the next phases of Bus Rapid Transit construction (BRT).

Among the intersections about to be slowed down is Wellington and Commissioners, one of London’s busiest.

The Phase 2A city project impacts from just south of Baseline Road to Wilkins Street.

This year, the infrastructure will be replaced. Road reconstruction and bus lanes are slated for 2027.

“The goal is to maintain access to businesses and to maintain at least one lane of traffic and the turn lane, so that traffic keeps flowing through construction,” said Jennie Dann, director of Construction and Infrastructure.

Of course, Londoners have already experienced the bottlenecks that occur when only one lane of traffic is open at rush hour, further south on Wellington Road.

While that stage of BRT is now moving to resurfacing and finishing touches, businesses have experienced months of disruption.

Now it’s the turn of those closer to Commissioners to feel the pain.

At a strip mall, just south of the intersection, Waes Jabbar is worried his customers will look for alternatives away from the shovels and dirt.

He opened The Genius Cut in the plaza 18 months ago.

“I don’t know, how is it going to be with the coming two years? I hope we’re going to survive it. We’ll see,” he told CTV News London.

While significant construction will take place in 2026 around his business, those north of Baseline won’t see shovels until this fall.

Phase 2B will see BRT lanes installed from Watson Street.

Dann said the staggering of the phase 2 project is necessary to maintain emergency vehicle access to Victoria Hospital.

“We’re going to try to make sure we’re keeping one of those intersections unrestricted as much as possible, so we’ve always got the access to the hospital maintained.”

Both Phase 2A and 2B - including finishing touches - are expected to be completed by late spring 2028.

BRT operation is slated to commence on Wellington that fall.

Jabbar hopes the service brings new growth to his business. He said that trend happened when he lived near new transit lines in Toronto a few years ago, “So, I’m hoping it’s going to be that way.”

Meanwhile, the completion of the east London BRT link is now in its final phases.

It includes the new closure of Dundas Street from McCormick Blvd, anticipated to last until this coming October.