You can find more info here:

engage.hamilton.ca

Main Street Conversion Study

On May 11, 2022, Hamilton City Council approved a motion focused on the development of safety enhancements on downtown major arterial roads, including the conversion of Main Street from a one-way to a two-way road. Following this approval, City staff have moved forward
engage.hamilton.ca engage.hamilton.ca

globalnews.ca

Hamilton speeding up construction for conversion of Main into two-way street - Hamilton | Globalnews.ca

Council gave final approval to speeding up a $26 million Main Street redevelopment which aims to cut construction time from an earlier outlook.
globalnews.ca globalnews.ca

Full reconstruction is supposed to begin in Spring 2026.

This year and last year they have been rebuilding York St - the other main street into downtown from the 403. It doesn't make sense to cut both off for construction at once. Once York St is done, they are doing Main St.. then once Main St is done, the LRT should be ramping up.

The City of course waited far, far too long to address it. But they are at least doing something about it now.
 
innsertnamehere said:
You can find more info here:

engage.hamilton.ca

Main Street Conversion Study

On May 11, 2022, Hamilton City Council approved a motion focused on the development of safety enhancements on downtown major arterial roads, including the conversion of Main Street from a one-way to a two-way road. Following this approval, City staff have moved forward
engage.hamilton.ca engage.hamilton.ca

globalnews.ca

Hamilton speeding up construction for conversion of Main into two-way street - Hamilton | Globalnews.ca

Council gave final approval to speeding up a $26 million Main Street redevelopment which aims to cut construction time from an earlier outlook.
globalnews.ca globalnews.ca

Full reconstruction is supposed to begin in Spring 2026.

This year and last year they have been rebuilding York St - the other main street into downtown from the 403. It doesn't make sense to cut both off for construction at once. Once York St is done, they are doing Main St.. then once Main St is done, the LRT should be ramping up.

The City of course waited far, far too long to address it. But they are at least doing something about it now.
Click to expand...
How much could the city have actually accelerated things? I thought the province was doing Main’s reconstruction (or are they just paying for it?). I know city dilly-dallying was a big issue in the LRT’s prior iteration, and there are still some dysfunctional dynamics between the city and provincial authorities.

What I’ve taken from your posts is city roads are moving as quick as possible, where the city’s on the hook (all but King/Main i thought). So… if Main is actually to be done by the city, does this imply the city’s sorry operating state is dictating the project timeline, including issuing the RFQ/RFPs? I wasn’t 100% sold this is/was the case, but it’s been floated before. Apologies if you’ve gone into it.

I ask because I was/am convinced delays were mostly because of Provincial shenanigans to date, taking on too many projects and needing to wrap others up before starting this one…
 
Sunnyside said:
How much could the city have actually accelerated things? I thought the province was doing Main’s reconstruction (or are they just paying for it?). I know city dilly-dallying was a big issue in the LRT’s prior iteration, and there are still some dysfunctional dynamics between the city and provincial authorities.

What I’ve taken from your posts is city roads are moving as quick as possible, where the city’s on the hook (all but King/Main i thought). So… if Main is actually to be done by the city, does this imply the city’s sorry operating state is dictating the project timeline, including issuing the RFQ/RFPs? I wasn’t 100% sold this is/was the case, but it’s been floated before. Apologies if you’ve gone into it.

I ask because I was/am convinced delays were mostly because of Provincial shenanigans to date, taking on too many projects and needing to wrap others up before starting this one…
Click to expand...
Main St is 100% a municipal project with no provincial funding contribution.

The LRT is funding other road projects - York St is funded by the province for example, as is some resurfacing work done in the east end last year. The LRT will of course also rebuild all streets it will run on, Main St W (west of the 403), Dundurn, King St, Frid St, Queenston, etc.

The delays on Main St are solely in the lap of the City and it's perpetual underfunding of roads. The City until 2018 or so was spending only about $50 million annual on roads maintenance. A few years ago a report was issued that stated it needed to be $190 million to properly maintain them..

The city has been slowly increasing spending to try to reach that target over the last few years. Which means more roads projects are happening, but it's still short of the $190 million goal. 2025 is at about $90 million. This will continue to increase until the target is reached in 2033..

roads spending.png


Main St is actually funded outside of this funding block with $26m in funding in 2026 and 2027 due to it's "accelerated" nature.

Even then, Main St wasn't actually scheduled for reconstruction until the early 2030's until council prioritized it for conversion and reconstruction in 2023, shifting it to the 2026/2027 window.

The Hamilton LRT RFP/RFQ is mostly in the lap of Metrolinx for delays - Metrolinx always takes forever to get these things through procurement as we know. When the City has the money they can build roads pretty efficiently.. They just havent been given the money for far too long.
 

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TheHonestMaple said:
As someone who lives in downtown Hamilton, it's embarrassing. Our city is a disaster. Crime is unbelievably high, the roads are in a complete state of disrepair. And our city prioritizes the hiring of poets, and enabling tent cities. But the LRT will save us :/
Click to expand...
So sad. It was such a beautiful and meaningful city.
 
innsertnamehere said:
Main St is 100% a municipal project with no provincial funding contribution.

The LRT is funding other road projects - York St is funded by the province for example, as is some resurfacing work done in the east end last year. The LRT will of course also rebuild all streets it will run on, Main St W (west of the 403), Dundurn, King St, Frid St, Queenston, etc.

The delays on Main St are solely in the lap of the City and it's perpetual underfunding of roads. The City until 2018 or so was spending only about $50 million annual on roads maintenance. A few years ago a report was issued that stated it needed to be $190 million to properly maintain them..

The city has been slowly increasing spending to try to reach that target over the last few years. Which means more roads projects are happening, but it's still short of the $190 million goal. 2025 is at about $90 million. This will continue to increase until the target is reached in 2033..

View attachment 653119

Main St is actually funded outside of this funding block with $26m in funding in 2026 and 2027 due to it's "accelerated" nature.

Even then, Main St wasn't actually scheduled for reconstruction until the early 2030's until council prioritized it for conversion and reconstruction in 2023, shifting it to the 2026/2027 window.

The Hamilton LRT RFP/RFQ is mostly in the lap of Metrolinx for delays - Metrolinx always takes forever to get these things through procurement as we know. When the City has the money they can build roads pretty efficiently.. They just havent been given the money for far too long.
Click to expand...
Thanks a bunch. I’ve loved your breakdowns of how the city’s road budget works before. It gives great insight to the real nuts and bolts of the city’s inner workings. Main and the way roads work the LRT at large have always seemed to be a confusing part for me.

We do seem pretty good at doing road work when we do it. Though maybe that extends to most municipal departments. While expertise and capability is a known problem for transit, it doesn’t seem to extend elsewhere. I’d love to talk more about Hamilton’s financial position and how it’s changing, but I’ll save it for now.

In any case, York’s update is refreshing. Sick of the cold-pour pothole fills. It does say a lot that Main would otherwise have eaten up nearly half of the growing road budget; would we have even been able to afford it at all a decade or two ago?

This shakes my pet theory that the B Line is simply dependent on Line 5’s completion a little bit, but the lack of obvious pressure from Mx suggests they do still have other fish to fry.

What I will also say, is where there’s crossover between the two is where friction has been.
 
innsertnamehere said:
Main St is 100% a municipal project with no provincial funding contribution.

The LRT is funding other road projects - York St is funded by the province for example, as is some resurfacing work done in the east end last year. The LRT will of course also rebuild all streets it will run on, Main St W (west of the 403), Dundurn, King St, Frid St, Queenston, etc.

The delays on Main St are solely in the lap of the City and it's perpetual underfunding of roads. The City until 2018 or so was spending only about $50 million annual on roads maintenance. A few years ago a report was issued that stated it needed to be $190 million to properly maintain them..

The city has been slowly increasing spending to try to reach that target over the last few years. Which means more roads projects are happening, but it's still short of the $190 million goal. 2025 is at about $90 million. This will continue to increase until the target is reached in 2033..

View attachment 653119

Main St is actually funded outside of this funding block with $26m in funding in 2026 and 2027 due to it's "accelerated" nature.

Even then, Main St wasn't actually scheduled for reconstruction until the early 2030's until council prioritized it for conversion and reconstruction in 2023, shifting it to the 2026/2027 window.

The Hamilton LRT RFP/RFQ is mostly in the lap of Metrolinx for delays - Metrolinx always takes forever to get these things through procurement as we know. When the City has the money they can build roads pretty efficiently.. They just havent been given the money for far too long.
Click to expand...

I'd caveat that the 403 interchange with the province is outside of the city's hands and they're still waiting for the province to wrap that up.
The other big project being done this year is the Wilson St two-way conversion, which will provide a lot of relief for King St construction.
 
Last edited:
TheHonestMaple said:
As someone who lives in downtown Hamilton, it's embarrassing. Our city is a disaster. Crime is unbelievably high, the roads are in a complete state of disrepair. And our city prioritizes the hiring of poets, and enabling tent cities. But the LRT will save us :/
Click to expand...
The city doesn't "hire poets", please don't fall for lazy reactionary memes. It's a $10 000 a year honorarium that the city makes to a single poet for a 2 year term. We have a large arts district and a massive art supercrawl every year- the program is part of a long term successful drive to diversify the city's economy after steel collapsed in the 90's. The public's knowledge of the program has ballooned way out of the reality of what it is thanks to Facebook misinformation: https://web.archive.org/web/2025040...cle_f19ea8a5-49a3-570c-839d-8fa9a184beea.html

There is a lot of parallel misinformation being spread about the LRT, it's important to call it out. Folks on Reddit yesterday were claiming the fares will be "double the cost of a bus", for example.
 
Last edited:
ownthesky said:
The city doesn't "hire poets", please don't fall for lazy reactionary memes. It's a $10 000 a year honorarium that the city makes to a single poet for a 2 year term. We have a large arts district and a massive art supercrawl every year- the program is part of a long term successful drive to diversify the city's economy after steel collapsed in the 90's. The public's knowledge of the program has ballooned way out of the reality of what it is thanks to Facebook misinformation: https://web.archive.org/web/2025040...cle_f19ea8a5-49a3-570c-839d-8fa9a184beea.html

There is a lot of parallel misinformation being spread about the LRT, it's important to call it out. Folks on Reddit yesterday were claiming the fares will be "double the cost of a bus", for example.
Click to expand...
The proliferation of bad narratives about our city among its own residents is disheartening but familiar. I’m not shocked it’s come down on various ecdev initiatives and the LRT. I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked, “do you think it [the LRT] will actually work?”

People have become cynical. At best public institutions’ roles feel invisible, at worst people feel contempt. This greater region and rapidly-growing province- where is it? Hamiltonians are right to question things when it seems like they’re living in a different world. I’d be more worried if we weren’t.
 
ownthesky said:
It's a $10 000 a year honorarium that the city makes to a single poet for a 2 year term.
Click to expand...
So they quite literally hire a poet?

I'm a taxpayer in this city. I own property. I don't think our tax money should be going to hiring poets. The city should be sticking to its core mandate - infrastructure, schools, police, fire, etc. Poetry does not fall within the city's core mandate, it's a waste of money. Perhaps our city should work on first fixing roads and getting crime under control, then maybe we can think about hiring poets and artists.

And shame on you for trying to shame me for being concerned about where my tax dollars go. My view is equally valid as yours. Don't you dare try to label the facts as 'misinformation'.
 
bayobserver.ca

Four consortia prequalified to bid on Hamilton LRT

The Ontario government announced this week it had issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the first package of civil and utility work for the Hamilton Light Rail Transit. Following a Request for Qualifications (RFQ), four teams have been invited to submit proposals for civil work, including...
bayobserver.ca bayobserver.ca

The four Canadian consortia that are prequalified to bid on the Hamilton LRT Project are:

  • Hamilton Synergy Alliance (Applicant Lead – AtkinsRéalis Major Projects Inc.)
  • Steel City Alliance (Applicant Lead – Dufferin Construction Company, A Division of CRH Canada Group Inc.)
  • Kenaidan Murphy Joint Venture (Applicant Lead – Murphy Infrastructure Inc.)
  • Aecon Hamilton Transit LRT Partnership (Applicant Lead – Aecon Infrastructure Management Inc.)
Metrolinx has hinted the successful budder could be named by the end of this year but that will be followed by a “development phase” that could last up to 24 months.
 
TransportEnthusiast said:
bayobserver.ca

Four consortia prequalified to bid on Hamilton LRT

The Ontario government announced this week it had issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the first package of civil and utility work for the Hamilton Light Rail Transit. Following a Request for Qualifications (RFQ), four teams have been invited to submit proposals for civil work, including...
bayobserver.ca bayobserver.ca

The four Canadian consortia that are prequalified to bid on the Hamilton LRT Project are:

  • Hamilton Synergy Alliance (Applicant Lead – AtkinsRéalis Major Projects Inc.)
  • Steel City Alliance (Applicant Lead – Dufferin Construction Company, A Division of CRH Canada Group Inc.)
  • Kenaidan Murphy Joint Venture (Applicant Lead – Murphy Infrastructure Inc.)
  • Aecon Hamilton Transit LRT Partnership (Applicant Lead – Aecon Infrastructure Management Inc.)
Metrolinx has hinted the successful budder could be named by the end of this year but that will be followed by a “development phase” that could last up to 24 months.
Click to expand...
So construction on this thing is unlikely to start before 2028. Wow. Just wow.
 
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