KITCHENER — This will be fun. The busy Victoria Street North bridge across the expressway closes Jan. 29 for almost a year, pushing traffic onto nearby bridges.

It will be demolished and replaced by a wider, longer bridge that is expected to open in late November.

Traffic will be detoured to the Wellington Street North overpass and to the Frederick Street overpass. Here's what the government wants you to do:

Through traffic (to or from Guelph) detours to the Wellington Street North overpass via Lancaster Street West, Shirley Avenue and Bingemans Centre Drive.

Local traffic detours to the Frederick Street overpass via Edna and Bruce streets and then back onto Victoria Street North.

Concerned Frederick Street residents are bracing for a big increase in traffic past their homes.

"I'm not too pleased about it, but what can you say? It is what it is," Karin Dunn said.

"The city planned it and we've just got to go along with it," her husband Gary Dunn said.

Residents expect drivers to use Frederick Street to connect with Victoria Street North even though this is not the official detour. They expect this will aggravate traffic challenges they already face.

"We can't even back out of our driveways a lot of the time. We have to go around the block," Faith-Anne Wagler said.

When recent construction reduced lanes across the expressway, traffic crawled past Veronika Mitchell's house on Frederick Street. She snapped a picture of the lineup.

"Will we get a tax abatement?" she asked, anticipating a year-long traffic mess. She wants tractor-trailers restricted to the official detour, to keep her windows from rattling.

"They should be putting speed bumps on here, slow them right down because they're whistling by," her husband Jim Mitchell said. "I don't see any money coming our way for compensation."

The Victoria Street bridge is being replaced to accommodate the long-delayed new Highway 7 to Guelph. Interchanges along the Kitchener-Waterloo expressway are being reconfigured.

The Dunns want a new Highway 7. "It's the same as when they first started thinking about doing the expressway. 'No but you can't do that' but look at how many people are using it now. It was the best thing ever," Karin said.

It will cost $19 million to replace the Victoria span, upgrade nearby sections of Victoria Street, and repair nearby spans and underpasses. Access will be maintained to local businesses along Victoria Street.

The new bridge will open with four lanes and sidewalks but not bicycle lanes. A safety median will be in place between Edna and Bruce streets to prevent left-turn collisions until the new Highway 7 opens at an undetermined time after 2021.

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Victoria Street traffic is expected to decline after the new highway opens. The median would then be replaced with a continuous centre left-turn lane.

Taxpayers have spent $121 million so far to help launch the new Highway 7, including the Victoria bridge replacement. Major components have yet to come and final highway costs have not been released.

The four-lane freeway, divided by a grass median, will run just north of the current Highway 7 for almost 19 kilometres between Kitchener and Guelph. That's based on planning that began in 1989, excluding planning that took place decades earlier.