BURST
Another stretch of Broadway is about to be shuttered to traffic for months, leaving businesses, residents and commuters bracing for disruptions and worsening congestion.
A two-block stretch of Broadway, between Cambie and Alberta streets, will close for six months in July shortly after the World Cup to allow crews to dismantle the traffic deck, install permanent utilities and rebuild the roadway.
The closing — longer than the recent four-month shutdown between Main and Quebec streets — is part of the nearly $3-billion Broadway Subway project, a 5.7-kilometre extension of the Millennium Line to Arbutus Street.
“The impact is going to be bad. There’s just no way around it,” said Rania Hatz, executive director of the Cambie Village Business Association, which represents about 400 businesses in the area.
Hatz expects the ripple effects to stretch well beyond Broadway, affecting surrounding streets.
“You divert traffic, you affect everything,” she said. “West 8th is already a nightmare if you’ve ever tried to cross it. There’s going to be a lot of confusion about who can turn and who can’t.”
Businesses are also worried about reduced foot traffic, blocked storefront access and backups at underground parkades. The Parkade at the Crossroads building, for example, which houses Whole Foods, RBC, London Drugs and other tenants, only has one entrance — on West 8th — which is already busy.
The area is home to several big-box retailers, including Home Depot, Canadian Tire, HomeSense and Best Buy, which Hatz believes may be better positioned to weather the disruption, with their deeper pockets and national marketing campaigns to fall back on.
“But the small, independent restaurants and retailers will be struggling,” she said. “And there’s no mechanism in place for compensation, which is absolutely ridiculous.”
The province says the closure will cut restoration work at Broadway-City Hall SkyTrain Station from 14 months to six months, mirroring a one-block detour used near Main Street that officials say reduced roadwork time by more than half.
Vehicles will be detoured through Alberta Street, West 8th Avenue and Ash Street back to Broadway, with the detour open to vehicles in both directions, while buses will be detoured on West 8th between Cambie and Alberta.
The closure is significantly longer at the Cambie Street station because there’s more work needed: The traffic deck outside Broadway-City Hall station has 20 girders and 133 deck panels that need to be dismantled, compared with 10 girders and 44 panels at the future Mount Pleasant station.
Access to businesses will remain open throughout the work. Project staff have began reaching out to businesses to share details and ask for their feedback, the ministry said.
Ping Ma, manager of Uma Sushi on West 8th near Cambie, has received a flyer about the closure but is worried about what it will mean for his restaurant. He’s seen the effects of the detour on businesses near Main and fears a drop in foot traffic.
While the restaurant gets a decent lunchtime crowd, “our dinner service has dropped about 30 to 40 per cent” over the last year, he said. “I don’t know whether it’s the broader (economic) environment or if it’s construction because people don’t want to travel this way.”
Ming Leung, owner of Sense Eyewear across the street, is preparing himself for a decrease in sales.
“Definitely it’ll drop,” he said, matter-of-factly.
His store tends to attract destination shoppers, but he believes the construction and congestion would scare off regulars who would just go elsewhere.
“Traffic is already a big problem. Hopefully they can finish earlier,” he said.
The Broadway Subway was initially scheduled for a 2025 completion but is about two years late, and is now expected to open in fall 2027.
Meanwhile, along the recently reopened stretch near Main Street, where Broadway reopened to single-lane traffic earlier this week after a four-month closure, recovery has been slow.
Neil Wyles, executive director of the Mount Pleasant Business Improvement Area, said the shutdown was more than an inconvenience. It disrupted livelihoods and families, especially for small businesses that need street access, foot traffic and visibility to survive.
A couple of businesses didn’t make it, shutting their doors during the four-month closure, including a bike shop and a small grocery store.
“It’s unfortunate, but not surprising,” said Wyles. “Without any help, businesses can’t survive if people aren’t coming through the door.”
His group had lobbied the provincial government for funding to help businesses stay afloat, but was rejected.
For many merchants, years of Broadway construction have taken a financial and personal toll. At a town hall held before the closure, Ron MacGillivray of Fable Diner said he’s had to sell his house to keep his business open. Tara Shayegan, owner of Uphoria Yoga, said her husband has picked up a second job to keep their doors open.
While it’s a relief to see Broadway open up, customer presence hasn’t returned, said Wyles, noting the BIA covers Broadway businesses from Main to Yukon, including a block affected by the Cambie-area shutdown.
“We’re not out of the woods yet,” he said. “People are still going to be rat-racing around the area. They’re still going to avoid Broadway.”