TORONTO, April 22, 2026 – The City of Toronto says the Gardiner Expressway will be fully closed from the Humber River to Spadina Avenue from 11 p.m. on Friday, April 24, to 5 a.m. on Monday, April 27, for concentrated maintenance work. For restaurants, fresh food businesses, small logistics drivers, and families planning to travel in and out of downtown over the weekend, the closure may create pressure from detours, delays, and schedule changes.
According to information released by the city on April 21, the closure will allow crews to complete a range of expressway maintenance work, including road repairs, bridge inspections, guiderail maintenance, lighting inspections, drainage clearing, lane marking, and cleaning. The city said concentrating the work into one weekend is intended to reduce the long-term disruption caused by multiple overnight closures.
For residents planning to travel in and out of downtown this weekend, the most direct impact will likely be longer travel times. If there are plans to go to downtown, the waterfront, convention venues, restaurant gatherings, family visits, or child drop-offs and pickups, residents should check real-time traffic conditions in advance, allow extra time, or consider using public transit such as the TTC or GO Transit. For new immigrant families unfamiliar with downtown roads, it is especially unwise to wait until the last minute to reroute.
For restaurants, fresh food businesses, and delivery drivers, the main impact will be on delivery windows and route planning. Some delivery vehicles travelling between Scarborough, North York, Mississauga, or the airport area and downtown may need to switch to Lake Shore Boulevard, the Queensway, Dundas, Bloor, or other surface roads. For goods that need to arrive on time, including vegetables, meat, seafood, dim sum ingredients, and restaurant supplies, businesses should confirm delivery times with suppliers in advance and, if necessary, adjust delivery order or avoid weekend peak periods.
For example, a delivery driver leaving from Scarborough on Saturday morning may originally have planned to first deliver dim sum ingredients to a downtown restaurant, then continue to a lakeside restaurant with seafood and vegetables. If the first leg is diverted onto surface roads and delayed because of the Gardiner closure, the receiving, stocking, and lunch preparation times for the later restaurants may all be compressed. For small restaurants, what arrives late is not just the shipment, but potentially the entire rhythm of that day’s business.
The city said that to reduce traffic impacts, it will deploy traffic officers, conduct real-time traffic monitoring, and adjust traffic signals on alternate routes. It will also use electronic message signs to warn drivers in advance, restrict short-term utility work on key detour routes, and coordinate with major event venues and map applications to provide the latest closure and alternate route information.
The city also reminds drivers to plan routes in advance, consider alternate routes, allow more time for travel, and use public transit where possible. Because the closure is weather-dependent, it may be rescheduled if rain or other severe weather is forecast.
For community residents and businesses, the most practical steps this weekend include checking live traffic before departure, avoiding complete reliance on usual routes, confirming delivery times, driver schedules, and refrigerated transport arrangements in advance, and allowing extra time or switching to public transit for family gatherings or downtown events. Businesses may also notify customers ahead of time that the closure could affect delivery timing.
Overall, this weekend’s Gardiner closure is part of Toronto’s expressway maintenance plan, and the city says the concentrated work is intended to reduce longer-term disruption. For Chinese families and small businesses in the GTA, the key is not simply knowing that “the highway is closed,” but adjusting routes, timing, and delivery plans in advance to reduce the impact on weekend life and community supply. (LJI by Yuanyuan)
