London Ontario - It's one of the biggest upgrades on city hall's construction list, and many Londoners are anxiously awaiting the Adelaide Street underpass to help relieve the headaches caused by the trains crossing the road near Central Avenue.
 
A deal about to be inked between city hall and Canadian Pacific Railway (CP), if approved by council, offers up important details about the project.
 
Here are some key ones:
 
Cutting the Cheques
 
CP will chip in $8.75 million to the eight-figure project.
 
That's just a hair more than the 15 percent of the total $58.3 million cost the rail company was expected to cover.
 
Earlier estimates breakdown the underpass price tag, with about $11 million for the roadwork itself, nearly $10 million for the rail structure, another $10 million to buy nearby properties that are in the way, and other costs including sewer work and relocating utilities making up the balance.
 
The End Game
 
Adelaide Street North, where trains cross and block traffic for about 100 minutes every day, was at the top of city hall's priority list to build some kind of rail/road workaround.
 
An underpass, rather than an overpass, was chosen as the best design, and when it's done, it'll provide a safer, faster, route for pedestrians, cyclists, and cars, not to mention emergency vehicles and public transit, city staff say.
 
The change will "increase mobility within the surrounding community," bureaucrats wrote in the latest staff report to politicians.
 
Multi-use paths will be built on either side of the four traffic lanes.
 
The underpass will stretch roughly from Central Avenue to McMahen Street.
 
New sewers, street lights and trees are other spin-off benefits of the project.
 
No Pain No Gain
 
It's going to take a while to build the new underpass, or "subway" as it's known in the technical language of the CP agreement.
 
Prepare for at least two years of construction, and a third as a "warranty period."
 
Shovels are expected to hit the ground this fall.
 
The previous city council sped up the Adelaide underpass project by a whopping 10 years, moving the start date to 2021 from 2031.
 
The Workaround
 
A two-lane temporary road will be built just east of Adelaide Street to keep things moving while the underpass is under construction.
 
It's expected to be started, and completed, this year.
 
Some short-term closures of the detour road might still be needed for specific work, but for the most part, north-south travel will still be possible.
 
"The majority of the underpass construction can be completed while traffic is routed around the construction area utilizing the temporary road detour," according to city staff.
 
By the Numbers
 
$58.3 million: Cost of the Adelaide underpass.
 
$8.75 million: Canadian Pacific rail's share of the cost.
 
$24.2 million: Senior government funding for the project, including $18.9 million from Ottawa, and $5.3 million from Queen's Park.
 
4: Payment installments from CP to city hall, paid annually.
 
100: Minutes, per day, that trains block traffic.
 
23: Properties bought (some expropriated), in full or in part, to prepare for the big dig.
 
$100 million: Minimum insurance coverage for any injury or damage, as required by CP, among other insurance requirements.
 
Megan Stacey.