Leading up to one of the last weekends of summer in Toronto, the City is warning residents and visitors of an unusually large number of road closures for events and construction in the coming days that will make it especially difficult to get around.

Anyone travelling by bike, transit, and especially by car should keep the following in mind, and give themselves ample extra time to get to where they're going in anticipation of crowds, delays and hiccups.

Street festivals and parades

• The Pape Village Block Party will mean the weekend-long closure of the neighbourhoods namesake street between Mortimer and Gamble avenues from 6 a.m. on Friday, September 13 to 10 p.m. on Sunday , September 15.
• On the other end of the city, the Toronto Ukrainian Festival will be taking over Bloor Street West between Jane Street and Glendonwynne Road from 9.am. on Friday, September 13 to 11:59 p.m. om Sunday, September 15.
• The Roncesvalles Polish Festival is also on this weekend, which will necessitate Roncesvalles Avenue to be blocked off between Dundas and Queen streets from 5 a.m. on Saturday, September 14 until 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, September 16.
• Additionally, this is the weekend of the Nagar Kirtan parade, which will mean intermittent single-lane closures along Steeles between Middlefield Road and McNicoll Avenue, and also on McCowan Road near Milliken Muirlands Parks, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, September 15.
• The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) also continues for the next few days, shutting down several lanes around the Shangri-La Hotel, Scotiabank Theatre and Princess of Wales Theatre until Tuesday, September 17; and around Roy Thomson Hall until Thursday, September 19.  

Goings-on like the Toronto Waterfront Festival, concerts and comedy shows will also be keeping the streets busy.

Construction

• The Gardiner Expressway continues to be a mess of gridlock during ongoing rehabilitation work, which included a full closure of the westbound York Street on-ramp over Thursday night. Motorists should keep the construction project in mind when planning their route.
• Lake Shore Boulevard East will be down to one lane from Logan and Carlaw for an entire month for roadwork starting 11 p.m. Sunday, September 15. Right-turning traffic from Lake Shore onto Carlaw will be redirected.

#TrafficAlertTO 🚧

From 11 pm on Sept 15 to 11 pm on Oct 15, eastbound Lake Shore Boulevard East will be reduced from 2 lanes to 1 lane between Logan & Carlaw Avenues to facilitate road reconstruction on Lake Shore Boulevard E as part of the Port Lands Flood Protection project. pic.twitter.com/xaQqmLc9VA

— City of Toronto (@cityoftoronto) September 13, 2024

• The Esplanade remains closed between Lower Jarvis and George Street every weekday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., including today, Friday, September 13, for sewer upgrades.
• Multiple lanes on Bayview Avenue  will be shuttered between Eglinton Avenue East and Parkhurst Boulevard on Saturday, September 14 (from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.) for a crane removal. The westbound Bayview Avenue on-ramp to Lawrence Avenue is also closed from 8 p.m. on Friday, September 13 to 1 a.m. on Monday, September 16 for infrastructure work.
• The long-closed chunk of King Street West that was closed for streetcar track work between Dufferin and Shaw streets has now reopened, but the City is advising of "intermittent lane closures until November to complete overhead and road restoration."
• Select lane closures along Eastern Avenue and Adelaide Street continue as crews renovate the Eastern Avenue Bridge, the Don Valley off-ramp over the Don River, the Richmond Street East Bridge over King and the Adelaide Street Bridge over King.
• Eastbound Huntingwood Drive will remain fully closed until Sunday, September 15, due to bike lane improvements and other fixes.

Toronto has thankfully implemented a number of new steps, including traffic cops stationed around bottlenecks, to help ease congestion. And, according to the City's data, they have been working.

You can check the list of hundreds of road closures and traffic hazards on the City of Toronto website and stay up to date on TTC service issues via the TTC Service Alerts X account. Additionally, highway closures that may throw a wrench into your travel plans can be found via Ontario 511.