For most of the year, there will be a lot of different scenes playing out in front of Grand River Hospital.
King Street will be torn up for underground utility work, then repaved.
After that, light rail tracks and other Ion-related infrastructure will be installed.
Through it all, the hospital will remain open.
“We’ve been spending the last couple of years getting ready for it,” Mark Karjaluoto, the hospital’s director of communications, told CTV News.
“Our goal is to make sure people know that our hospital is accessible and open at all times.”
Down the street from the hospital, business owners are preparing for lengthy disruptions of their own.
Between Victoria Street and Moore Avenue, King is expected to be closed for about 18 months.
Anne Marie Essaunce, who manages The Framing and Arts Centre, says she expects her business to take a big hit.
“Any kind of walk-by or drive-through that we would normally see on King Street is … not going to be available to us,” she says.
Essaunce’s business is part of a plaza which has an entrance off King, but another at its rear – meaning the plaza will remain open and accessible through construction.
She says she hopes to see obvious signage to help her potential customers get around the construction crews, and plans to email regular customers with maps.
“We just need everyone to know how to get in here,” she says.
Between Victoria and Union, King is expected to close sometime in March.
