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City hall started negotiations a year ago.

That means the remaining 21 properties, including four full ones, could be expropriated if council signs off later this month.

Yadira Barahona’s property, on the southeast corner of Adelaide and Central, is one of them. She has three apartments on the upper floor and two businesses below, a jewelry store and a salon.

“I really don’t know what to do. I am waiting to find a good lawyer so we can see what is best for me,” she said.

“(City hall) already gave me an offer, but too low. I bought this house in 2016, I renovated, I did all the renovations. It’s going to be affected a lot. I put all my energy into this business.”

Trad’s Furniture, north of Central, which is situated on land owned by CP Rail, will shut down before the street is dug up. Owner Charbel Trad, 70, is ready to call it quits after 29 years in business.

“It was very hard for me to decide. So this is a good excuse, this is a good help for me,” he said.

The price tag to acquire all the land needed for the underpass was pegged at $9.8 million in the final environment assessment made public last year.

Construction is expected to begin in 2021, a start date that was moved up by a decade to bring relief for drivers in the area.

There may be some cost sharing to help cushion the blow for London property taxpayers, with CP expected to pick up about 15 per cent of the project tab.

“We always continue to negotiate in hopes of reaching an amicable agreement. I’d say in the majority of cases, we’re able to meet those amicable agreements,” Garfield Dales, city hall’s transportation division manager, said.