Stretch of Broadway closing for 4 months, starting Monday

Heads up to Vancouver drivers: a busy block on a major route is closing for four months, starting Monday.

Beginning at 7 a.m., East Broadway will be completely closed to vehicle traffic between Main and Quebec streets.

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The closure will be in place to allow crews to work on the construction of the Broadway Subway.

“Crews will remove the traffic deck panels and supporting girders,” the Broadway Subway Project information page says.

“Activities include, but are not limited to, backfilling, road repairs, crane activities, saw cutting, welding, as-and-when-needed landscaping, and occasional hydro vac.”

Work will run from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m., Monday to Saturday.

Sidewalks along the stretch will remain open, and all businesses and homes will remain accessible, the City of Vancouver says. Transit will be detoured to East 8th Avenue, and drivers must use alternate routes.

Businesses concerned

The provincial government first announced the four-month closure back in October.

For several weeks, business owners in the area were left wondering when it would start.

Neil Wyles, executive director of the Mount Pleasant BIA, says he’s as concerned Monday as he was in October.

“Some of my business members are going to come to work this morning to find concrete barriers and fences in front of their businesses; parking that their customers are relying on has been removed; and when the project says, ‘Oh, we’ve removed X amount of spaces,’ — you’ve removed it all. It’s all gone. So it’s going to be very difficult and challenging for these folks, I think, to make it through the next four months and then the additional four months after that,” Wyles told CityNews.

He says the province has been steadfast in its refusal to compensate businesses for the interruptions.

“We’re going on six years now. Six years of a major construction project through the heart of the city. We’ve seen countless businesses close on this little strip of Broadway, and remind you that the whole thing is 24 blocks long. So we’re just Mount Pleasant — one small part of it.”

He says one business in the BIA has reported a drop in revenue of over $500,000 each year.

“Those are huge amounts of money. When you’re operating on razor-thin margins, the rent still needs to be paid, staff still needs to be paid. There’s a lot of anxiety right now.”

Last week, some members shared that they had finally secured a date for a long-awaited meeting with B.C. Transportation Minister Mike Farnworth. Wyles says when the minister meets the group on Tuesday, he hopes he understands the project’s impact.

He says most business owners are struggling, and may not last to see the potential benefits of the completed subway line.

“They’ve sacrificed so much. They want to be able to get to the other side of this. And if there is some benefit to this, they want to be here to reap that reward because they sacrificed so much.”

Ron McGillivray, who owns Fable Diner on Broadway immediately west of Main Street, says the closure is “devastating.”

“We’re already down 45 per cent year over year from pre-construction for the last three years consistently,” said McGillivray.

“We’ve been dealing with this for about five years now. This next stage is going to be, I mean, worse.”

He says he was hoping the arrival of a summer tourist boom would help the diner stay afloat.

“But now we might even not even have the road in front of us open during the FIFA World Cup.”

McGillivray says he just wants the provincial government to offer some accountability for the delays and disruptions, which have come at the cost of personal sacrifices.

“I sold my house three years ago. I’ve got three kids… I go through some weeks, [wondering,] ‘Am I going to declare bankruptcy? What am I going to do? How am I going to survive?’ So I sold the house. I was hoping to pass that on to my kids. That’s not going to happen,” he said.

“We’re getting hit with the construction plus the economy. It’s just every day, every week, it’s like survival.”

The Broadway Subway Project was initially estimated to be finished in 2025, but is now slated to open in fall 2027, two years behind schedule and roughly $100 million over budget.

The total cost of the project is expected to be nearly $3 billion.

Subway expected to save commuters up to 30 minutes a day

When complete, the 5.7-kilometre Broadway Subway line will be an extension of the SkyTrain Millennial Line, connecting VCC-Clark Station to Arbutus.

The province says 700 metres will be elevated and five kilometres will be tunnelled below ground. The line will include six underground stations.

According to the B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Transit, the subway will save the average Broadway transit commuter up to 30 minutes a day.

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— With files from Monika Gul and Sonia Aslam

Listen live to 1130 NewsRadio Vancouver every 10 minutes on the ones for traffic updates. You can also follow us on X @NewsRadioVan and subscribe to Traffic Alerts sent directly to your inbox.