Broadway at Main Finally Reopens After 4-Month Subway Detour

After nearly four months of full closure and a frustrating detour that sent drivers looping through residential streets, East Broadway between Main and Quebec is reopening to traffic Wednesday morning.

The closure was necessary to remove a temporary four-lane bridge deck that's been sitting above Mount Pleasant Station since April 2022. That deck let traffic flow while crews dug the subway tunnel underneath—but getting it out required ripping up the entire roadway and rebuilding it from scratch. The provincial government chose a four-month full closure over a slower 16-month partial-lane approach, betting (correctly, locals will tell you) that a clean break beats death by a thousand traffic cones.

When the permanent roadway opens in July—two months ahead of schedule—it'll look different. Instead of three lanes with parking, Broadway will have two vehicle lanes in each direction, wider sidewalks, and better infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists. The design reflects Vancouver's Broadway Plan, which is quietly reshaping the corridor as the Broadway Subway extension creeps toward completion in fall 2027.

Businesses along the corridor have been gutted by the closure. Some hung on; others didn't. The provincial government's decision not to offer formal financial relief stung, though the accelerated reopening timeline is a small olive branch. Drivers should still expect minor impacts through Thursday as crews remove temporary signals.

One block reopened doesn't mean the chaos is over—there's a six-month full closure of West Broadway between Cambie and Alberta coming later this summer (after the World Cup), and Arbutus Street has nightly closures starting May 19 for another two weeks. But for now, Main and Broadway commuters can finally catch a break.