Starting as early as next week, ION light rapid transit construction crews will be tearing up, and shutting down, some main arterial roads in Kitchener and Waterloo.

Among the closures is a large stretch of King Street West, running from Victoria Street to Union Boulevard. Also included is a closure of Charles Street, from Victoria Street to Borden Avenue in Kitchener and Allen Street from Caroline to King Street South in Waterloo.

The closures are part of an aggressive 2015 construction schedule, which is scheduled to wrack up around 600,000 working hours, according to officials with Grandlinq, the company responsible for the design, construction, maintenance and operation of the LRT.

"It represents roughly 50 per cent of our construction program," said Victor Bragues, Grandlinq's design build manager.

"The bulk of the work in 2016 will be track and systems related work which represents a smaller component."

Detours for all closures will be provided, and largely rely on Weber Street to take the brunt of the through traffic.

Grand River Transit has also established proposed bus detours, and has plans to increase the number of buses on the road to combat delays the construction may cause.

Spring street closures for LRT construction

Waterloo residents can expect closures on:

Allen Street, from Caroline Street to King Street South

Kitchener residents can expect closures on:

King Street West, from Union Street to Victoria Street

Charles Street, from Victoria Street to Borden Avenue

Summer street closures for LRT construction

Waterloo residents can expect closures on:

King Street South, from Allen Street to Union Street

King Street South, from Erb Street to Allen Street

Kitchener residents can expect closures on: