A stretch of King Street will be shut down until the end of 2024 for a major construction project, with the potential to create gridlocked spillover traffic in the surrounding area.

The City and TTC are planning a significant coordinated project to renew old and weathered streetcar tracks along King Street West between Dufferin Street and Shaw Street and replace a 146-year-old watermain running below this stretch of King.

This combined overhaul will be conducted in rolling phases starting next February, and is expected to last for ten months until December 2024.

Construction will force the TTC to reroute its 501/301 Queen, 504/304 King, 508 Lake Shore, 29/329/929 Dufferin and 63/363 Ossington services, which will undoubtedly cause bottlenecks in Liberty Village and other surrounding neighbourhoods.

The TTC has not shared details of the diversion routes as of mid-November 2023.

Work will begin in mid-February with an initial phase focused on replacing the century-and-a-half-old watermain running east-west beneath King Street West.

Rolling portions of the street will be closed between Dufferin and Shaw until the watermain replacement phase wraps up next August.

A single lane of traffic in each direction will be maintained through the stretch as work progresses, along with full pedestrian access.

A second phase will follow from mid-May to June 2024, kicking off the streetcar track replacement element of the combined TTC/City effort with the rebuilding of tracks between Dufferin and Fraser.

This phase will also mark the start of a challenging time for local motorists and businesses, with vehicle access to this portion of King Street being fully shut down from the start of phase 2 until the project's conclusion in 2024.

In addition to the traffic disruptions, the second phase of work will likely prove the most annoying for locals – who will have to deal with heavy construction noise, including concrete breaking and rail grinding, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The City explains that "around-the-clock work during rail installation by TTC is required to preserve the integrity and quality of new rail and concrete."

According to the City, "concrete breaking work is the most disruptive and will typically last the first one to two days for each phase of the construction."

All other phases will be limited to 7 a.m.–11 p.m. work hours.

Phase 3 will continue the process at the intersection of King and Dufferin, and phase 4 will see tracks replaced between Fraser and Atlantic avenues. The fifth and final phase will involve the replacement of track between Atlantic Ave. and Shaw St.

The project is expected to wrap up after a gruelling ten months in December 2024.