‘It’s a disaster’: Preston Street businesses hit by nearby highway work

Pietro Amoriello looked at the empty tables surrounding him on Sunday afternoon before answering a question about the impact of the closed stretch of the Queensway on the weekend.

“It’s a disaster,” said Amoriello, owner of Del Piacere Ristorante, on the corner of Preston and Beech, within site of the construction zone on the 417.

After first being shut down Thursday night to replace an aging bridge overpass, the Queensway was closed in both directions between Carling Avenue and Metcalfe Street for the replacement work throughout the weekend.

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The highway was scheduled to reopen Monday at 6 a.m., in time for morning rush-hour traffic.

For most of the weekend, there was bumper-to-bumper traffic in both directions before drivers were detoured throughout the city, creating extended logjams on Carling Avenue.

All of the above, Amoriello says, was awful for business. Indeed, the patios all along Preston Street were quiet Sunday. “People are avoiding this area because of the highway. The news out there is like, ‘The highway is closed,’ so people say, ‘Where do we go now?’ ”

Instead of getting into the car and enduring an annoying detour, Amoriello says many people opted to change their plans to avoid downtown altogether.

“Maybe it’s a nice, beautiful weekend for cottages. Probably, it’s just this weekend. The bridge should be done and everything becomes normal again. But this weekend is a disaster. Usually for lunch we are busy always on the weekend. This is the worst weekend of the summer.”

Work on the project began Friday, causing massive rush-hour delays.

The crews began tearing down an old overpass/bridge over Preston Avenue Thursday afternoon and lifted a new pre-built overpass structure into place over the weekend.

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Earlier in the week, the city warned drivers of “significant” traffic impacts during the closure of a stretch of Highway 417 this weekend.

As of late Sunday afternoon, all signs pointed to the Queensway being open to traffic on Monday morning.

“Everything is going fairly well,” said Frank Vanderlaan, the area manager of Highway Engineering for the Ontario Ministry of Transportation. “Everything looks good.”

The city and its contractor have said all of the affected Highway 417 overpasses are near the end of their lifespans.

On its website, the contractor says the overpass replacement projects will be finished this year. But a variety of other highway related work will be done in 2025.

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