What's Your Unit Worth Right Now?
Get a free AI-powered price range for your condo in under 90 seconds — floor, exposure, view, parking and locker included. No name or address required.
Get My Free Estimate →Gardiner Expressway Section 3 — Highway 427 to the Humber River — is the stretch that runs alongside The Queensway, and it is under active reconstruction. As of the City’s community update of 31 July 2026: the Park Lawn Road westbound on-ramp is fully closed from 5 August 2026 through December 2026, and Kipling and Islington Avenues are reduced from three lanes to two in each direction over the same period.
Early works began in spring 2025 and run through December 2026. Full Section 3 rehabilitation is scheduled to start as soon as 2027, and no completion date has been published.
The scope
Section 3 covers 6.5 km of expressway and 15 bridges between Highway 427 and the Humber River. That is the entire southern flank of the Queensway corridor.
Early works are concentrated on five structures, every one of them in daily use by people living on this street:
- The Gardiner Expressway Park Lawn Road overpass
- The Gardiner Expressway Mimico Creek overpass
- The westbound Gardiner on-ramp from Park Lawn Road over Mimico Creek
- Kipling Avenue over the Gardiner
- Islington Avenue over the Gardiner
What is happening right now
| What | When | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Park Lawn Road westbound on-ramp | Fully closed 5 August 2026 to December 2026 | The westbound Gardiner on-ramp from Park Lawn Road |
| Kipling and Islington Avenues | August 2026 to December 2026 | Reduced from three lanes to two in each direction |
| Park Lawn Road overpass | Overnight demolition 8–9 August 2026, 11 p.m. to 11 a.m. | Full closure of Park Lawn Road during that window |
| Mimico Creek overpass | Demolition expected to take about one month | Overnight work possible |
| Working hours | 24 hours a day, seven days a week permitted | The City notes saw cutting, hydraulic hammers and other demolition equipment |
| Early works overall | Spring 2025 through December 2026 | |
| Full Section 3 rehabilitation | Starting as soon as 2027 | No published completion date |
Work resumed after a construction pause during the FIFA World Cup.
The City’s own notice mentions saw cutting and hydraulic hammers, and construction is permitted around the clock. If you are buying a suite with south-facing exposure toward the Gardiner between Park Lawn and Kipling, this is a real and immediate quality-of-life factor, not a theoretical one.
My honest advice: visit the specific unit at night before you commit. Not the model suite in the afternoon. The actual unit, after dark, with the window open.
Highway 427 and the QEW
Worth clearing up, because it comes up constantly. The much-publicised Highway 427 expansion is in Vaughan, well north of here, and has nothing to do with Etobicoke.
The one MTO project in this immediate area — the bridge rehabilitation at Evans Avenue, Highway 427 and The Queensway — is listed as completed in Ontario’s Southern Highways Program 2025–2028, published 27 January 2026, with a target completion of 2025. No other provincial highway project in that programme is located at The Queensway.
The longer-term road plan
The Park Lawn Lake Shore Transportation Master Plan, finalised 8 April 2022, sets out a long-term network that includes a new north–south street between Lake Shore Boulevard West and The Queensway, with the existing Gardiner ramps at Brookers Lane modified to connect directly to it, plus cycle tracks and sidewalks.
Read the caveats in the City’s own report before you get excited about it: it requires a Schedule C environmental assessment, it is technically complex because of the rail and expressway grade separation, it may affect the Ontario Food Terminal’s parking, and it would require relocating two Hydro One transmission towers. This is a long-term plan, not a funded project.
My read
Two honest halves. In the near term, this is genuinely disruptive — road closures, lane reductions, round-the-clock demolition noise, and a multi-year horizon that extends past 2027. Anyone buying here should know that and price it.
In the longer term, the Gardiner between the 427 and the Humber is the reason a lot of people live on this street, and it is being rebuilt to last. Deferred infrastructure work is a liability; work in progress is a liability being retired. That is worth something, even while the hammers are going.
Worried about construction noise at a specific address?
Tell me the building and the exposure and I will tell you honestly how close it sits to the active work, what is scheduled there, and whether I would buy that particular unit. I live and work on this corridor, so this is not a guess.
connect@jatindua.com · 437-987-1925 · Book a free consultation
Confidential. Read personally and answered within 24 hours. I never share, sell or distribute your information.
Free tool — AI condo value estimator
Condo Valuation
What’s your condo
worth today?
Three quick steps. Condos don’t price like houses — your floor, your view, and whether you own parking move the number more than anything else. This weighs all of them.
Reading recent condo sales…
Estimated market value
—
$0–$0
Most likely $0 · about $0 per square foot
What moved the number
Starting from what comparable units in your area sell for, here’s what your specifics added or subtracted.
Market context
—
—
Two units, same floor plan,
$90,000 apart.
That happens constantly in condos — one has the parking, the right exposure, or a board that keeps the reserve fund healthy. A model can’t see your status certificate. I can.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Gardiner Expressway under construction near The Queensway?
Yes. Gardiner Section 3, from Highway 427 to the Humber River, covers 6.5 kilometres of expressway and 15 bridges and runs alongside The Queensway corridor. Early works began in spring 2025 and run through December 2026, with full rehabilitation scheduled to start as soon as 2027.
Is the Park Lawn Road on-ramp to the Gardiner closed?
Yes. The City’s community update of 31 July 2026 states the westbound Gardiner on-ramp from Park Lawn Road is fully closed from 5 August 2026 through December 2026.
Are Kipling and Islington reduced to two lanes?
Yes. Both Kipling Avenue and Islington Avenue over the Gardiner are reduced from three lanes to two in each direction from August 2026 through December 2026, while the bridges are rehabilitated.
Can construction on the Gardiner happen overnight?
Yes. The City states construction is permitted 24 hours a day, seven days a week for this work, and its own notice mentions saw cutting, hydraulic hammers and other demolition equipment.
When will the Gardiner work near The Queensway finish?
No completion date has been published. Early works run through December 2026 and the full Section 3 rehabilitation is scheduled to start as soon as 2027. Anyone quoting you an end date is going beyond the record.
Is Highway 427 being widened near The Queensway?
No. The Highway 427 expansion project is in Vaughan. The only provincial highway project in this immediate area, the bridge rehabilitation at Evans Avenue, Highway 427 and The Queensway, is listed as completed in Ontario’s Southern Highways Program 2025-2028.
Related reading
- Getting around from The Queensway
- Every condo building on The Queensway, one list
- The Queensway development pipeline in 2026
- What Queensway condos actually sold for
- Is Stonegate-Queensway safe?
Sources
Every figure on this page traces to one of these. Checked 30 August 2026.
- City of Toronto — Gardiner Expressway Section 3: Highway 427 to Humber River. The City’s project page for the rehabilitation work running through this corridor. Accessed 30 August 2026.
- City of Toronto — Gardiner Section 3 Community Update, 31 July 2026. The current closure schedule, including the Park Lawn westbound on-ramp closure and the Kipling and Islington lane reductions. Accessed 30 August 2026.
- City of Toronto — Gardiner Expressway Strategic Rehabilitation Plan. The overall rehabilitation programme and its sections. Accessed 30 August 2026.
- Ontario — Southern Highways Program 2025-2028 (published 27 January 2026). The provincial highway programme, listing the Evans Avenue / Highway 427 / Queensway bridge rehabilitation as completed. Accessed 30 August 2026.
- City of Toronto — Park Lawn Lake Shore Transportation Master Plan and Legion Road, final report (8 April 2022). The long-term network plan including the proposed new north-south street and its stated constraints. Accessed 30 August 2026.
About the author — Jatin Dua, Etobicoke real estate agent
I’m a licensed Realtor with RE/MAX Quantum Realty at 799 The Queensway in Etobicoke. My office is on this street, which is the only reason I can write pages like this one: I walk past these sites, I read the City files, and I check the numbers against the source rather than repeating what a marketing page says. I work with buyers, sellers and investors across Stonegate–Queensway, Mimico, Humber Bay Shores, New Toronto, Long Branch and Alderwood.
Questions about a specific suite or a specific site? connect@jatindua.com or 437-987-1925.