Expect delays due to LRT work at major highway interchange in Mississauga

Drivers can expect delays for the next month at Hurontario Street and the QEW in Mississauga as work continues on the $4.6-billion Hazel McCallion light-rail transit line, project leaders say.

Area residents and nearby businesses can also anticipate more noise as work crews lay down tracks for the Hazel McCallion Line and complete other tasks through Aug. 6 at the busy interchange (see map below). The work began on Monday.

Project leaders overseeing the massive Mississauga-to-Brampton transit initiative say turn restrictions will be in place for the next four weeks at that location along the 18-kilometre north-south LRT route.

“Construction at the QEW and Hurontario Street will restrict all QEW ramp movements to right turns only, causing detours for left turns and through traffic,” Metrolinx, the provincial agency in charge of the transformational transit project, said in its latest update.

Traffic in the area will be impacted as follows:

• Eastbound traffic heading north: detour via Cawthra Road.
• Westbound traffic heading south: detour via Mississauga Road.
• Southbound traffic: no left turn to South Service Road.
• Northbound traffic: no left turn to westbound QEW.

Officials said the work is expected to continue seven days a week, 24 hours a day until completion. They added work may be rescheduled due to weather or unforeseen circumstances.

Metrolinx also noted trucks and construction equipment may generate additional noise, vibrations and dust during construction over the next several weeks.

The project leader added traffic delays are expected to be minor and area businesses will remain open during construction. Sidewalks will also remain open to pedestrians.

Additionally, there is no anticipated impact on public transit buses/schedules, officials said.

LRT line four years behind original schedule

Under construction since 2020 and initially scheduled to open in late 2024, the Hazel McCallion Line is now expected to take its first passengers in early 2028.

When completed, it will run 18 kilometres along Hurontario Street from south Mississauga (Port Credit GO) north into downtown Brampton.

Metrolinx updated City of Mississauga officials on the well-behind-schedule public transit initiative at a closed-door session in late April. The mayor, city councillors and senior staff had long expressed frustration at project delays they’ve said are hurting businesses and testing drivers’ patience daily.

In an interview with INsauga.com in May, Mayor Carolyn Parrish said she and other city officials were told by Metrolinx the Hazel McCallion Line would be ready in 2028 to take its first passengers.

(Image: Metrolinx)

When it opens to passengers, the Hazel McCallion Line will feature more than 20 stops along the route, including several in Mississauga’s downtown core by Square One. Metrolinx received the go-ahead from the province in February 2024 to extend the LRT line by three or four kilometres into downtown Brampton and reintroduce the “downtown loop” to the City Centre area of Mississauga. The latter component will add several stops to the route.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said earlier this year that extending the $4.6-billion Hazel McCallion Line from Hurontario Street into the busy and fast-growing downtown core of Mississauga will cost another $1.6 billion — the construction tab to be picked up by the provincial government.