Maley Drive on schedule to reopen at Frood Rd. on Sept. 1

Work on creating a final roundabout on the Maley Drive extension is proceeding as scheduled, with the road reopening Sept. 1 and the roundabout being completed in November.

The roundabout will eliminate the bottleneck at Frood Road that is particularly troublesome during rush hour traffic.

Project manager Miranda Edwards told CTV News on Wednesday that the majority of the circle in the middle of the roundabout has been completed.

While the roadway will open Sept. 1, a traffic light will still be in place for about a month as crews work to complete the roundabout. The entire process will end in November.

Construction on the $80 million extension began in 2016, with costs split equally between the city, the province and the federal government. Many critics predicted it would not ease traffic and would likely come in over budget.

Instead, it came in under budget and recent statistics have shown traffic counts on Lasalle and the Kingsway have dropped as expected.

Daily vehicle traffic is at or near estimates, the July 2023 report said, and the extension has succeeded in reducing congestion on some of the city’s busiest streets.

In particular, daily traffic on busy stretches of Lasalle is down about 14,000 vehicles a day -- in line with predictions – and 4,400 fewer vehicles take the Kingsway each day.

However, the roundabout at the Frood section of the extension wasn’t completed and led to the daily congestion in the area from College Boreal to the traffic light on Frood.

• Download the CTV News app now and get local alerts on your device
• Get local breaking news and updates sent to your email inbox

Edwards said Wednesday more paving and construction is needed before the intersection is fully reopened.

“We still have our surface asphalt to be paved by the end of October, and the roundabout is on schedule to be opened by November,” Edwards said.

“So we're on budget. We're on schedule. Work is progressing. We're on schedule to open Frood Road by Sept. 1 and the roundabout will be fully opened by November.”