If you drive Ron McNeil Line through from Highbury Avenue to Yarmouth Centre Road, you will need another way around for about five weeks. The City of St. Thomas says the road will be closed from Monday, September 28th to Friday, October 30th “for storm sewer improvements and roundabout construction.”
The closed stretch is 713 metres long, just west of Yarmouth Centre Road, along the north edge of Yarmouth Yards, the industrial park around the PowerCo battery plant. The City’s listing says the road “will be uncrossable for a significant portion of the closure, with no emergency vehicle access.”
The detour
The City’s posted detour is 11.5 kilometres. It runs north on Highbury Avenue from the Ron McNeil Line roundabout (the one with the red barn sculpture, “Fading Memories”), east on Ferguson Line, then south on Belmont Road back to Ron McNeil Line.
Where the roundabout fits
The closure notice does not say where the roundabout will go. The City’s own plans give a strong hint.
In December 2025, City staff gave council a “2026 Construction Staging Plan” map for Yarmouth Yards. It shows a new road, named Battery Boulevard on the plan, running north along the east side of the PowerCo site. On the plan, Battery Boulevard meets Ron McNeil Line at a roundabout, and that spot falls inside the stretch that closes on September 28th.
The same plan shows Battery Boulevard running beside a planned rail shunting yard, with a second roundabout farther south where it meets another road in the park. It also shows the roundabout where Electric Avenue meets Ron McNeil Line, farther west.
That plan came with a report saying the 2026 projects “will see nearly all of the critical municipal infrastructure built out in the 1500-acre development.”
The plan is from last December, and nothing the City has posted about this closure names Battery Boulevard. As of Friday morning, the City’s news page and construction projects page had no notice about the closure.
LocVox asked the City’s communications office and its Environmental Services department on Thursday morning which project this is, where exactly the roundabout will go, and what drivers should know about access and timing. Neither had replied by publication.
A second closure on the same road
This is not the only closure on Ron McNeil Line right now. West of the city, the road has been closed between Highway 3 and Wonderland Road since May 1st for the Talbotville Bypass project. Elgin County says that closure is expected to last until the fall of 2027.
The park is still being built even as PowerCo’s timeline has shifted. As LocVox reported this week, PowerCo now expects its St. Thomas plant to begin operations in 2029.
Sources: Municipal 511 road closures map · Report ID-30-25, Yarmouth Yards 2026 Construction Staging Plan (December 8, 2025)
By Anthony Zruna · About the LocVox Newsroom
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