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At least one restaurant owner says his business has been negatively affected since repairs began on the intersection at Queen Street W. and Spadina Ave.
The City of Toronto announced Monday that this major artery will be closed in all directions while crews rebuild streetcar tracks and passenger platforms, install new streetcar wires, and carry out repairs to the surrounding sidewalk and road.
The work is expected to continue until July 23.
BQM Burger, a restaurant situated northeast of the intersection, is already noticing an impact on business because of the construction.
“It’s chaos. My parking is right behind the restaurant,” said manager Saeed Mohamed.
“Normally I just zip onto Queen, turn on Spadina, and park in the back, but I had to reroute myself to Dundas, to Spadina, etc. What would [normally] take 2 minutes took me more than 30 minutes.”
The slowed traffic and detours have resulted in loss for Mohamed’s business. “My whole patio is empty, and in the summer about 50 percent of the business is the patio,” he said.
“[But] we’re a very popular and strong business, so I don’t think it’s going to hurt us [much], but it’s definitely not something that we want.”
However, he said that the city’s construction plans have a tendency to last longer than their estimated time.
“The city always takes longer than what they say. I think that two weeks is too long. If it becomes 4-5 weeks, then it will become a [more significant] problem.”
But not all businesses are noticing these effects. Gertrude Lung, manager of Fresh on Spadina, a restaurant that is a bit farther from the intersection than BQM, said business is relatively normal.
“I don’t think it has affected us too much. There are still people sitting on the patio, even though it is right in the construction zone. They’re not too bothered by it, but I think it makes it a bit difficult for customers to navigate to our restaurant.”
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