Funding gap leaves Horton-Wharncliffe intersection upgrade with no start date

Now more than a decade in the making, the City of London's plan to fix the traffic bottleneck at Wharncliffe Road South and Horton Street East is in a holding pattern, with outstanding budget issues that need to be addressed before construction can start.

The $90-million project, which includes work to widen Wharncliffe, replace the CN railway overpass and other upgrades to improve traffic flow, has no firm start date.

Coun. Skylar Franke represents the area and said the project is a priority.

"I think it's important that we move forward with the construction as soon as we can," she said. "I do get regular complaints about issues related to the traffic at Wharncliffe and Horton."

Pushing the project's cost up and timelines back in recent years has been a combination of factors, some outside the city's control.

One pressure point has been lower-than-expected revenue from development charges (DCs), which are the fees developers pay to the city to cover growth costs.

A city staff report in October said DC revenues have been dragged down by as much as 50 per cent by a combination of factors, including lower than expected population growth. Also complicating capital funding is legislative changes by the Doug Ford provincial government to exempt some projects from DCs as a way to spur housing construction.

Last spring the city's budget staff estimated the shortfall in the city's DC fund to be $177 million.

While some city funds have already been allocated to the Wharncliffe-Horton intersection project and some preparation work has been done, about $39.6 million in funding still needs to be firmed up.

In last year's capital budget, the city was counting on DCs to fund $21 million of that gap with CN being budged to contribute just under $6 million. The final $12.5 million was slated to come from borrowing, with the taxpayer-supported budget responsible for those borrowing costs.

Franke said while the delay in upgrading the intersection isn't ideal, the timing might now be optimal with other construction work affecting north-sound traffic — the Victoria Street bridge replacement and BRT work on Wellington Street at Horton — now complete.

Council balked at funding the project in its last four-year budget.

Staff reports have hinted the project's funding gap could widen. The latest project cost estimates are two years old and will need updating.

Franke is hopeful a source of money from senior governments might be found to help ease the portion city taxpayers will have to raise through borrowing, she said.