The seemingly endless bottleneck for southbound traffic on Highway 10 at Caledon Village is expected to peak next Monday night and continue until the end of September, according to the contract administrator's office.

In the meantime, OPP Sgt. Jim Mink said Caledon OPP is aware of and concerned about the bottleneck and has asked the Ministry of Transportation to extend the southbound traffic light, currently set for a maximum of about 22 seconds every minute.

"They did extend it a bit but the bottleneck [routinely] starts at the next road up from the village, where the roadway narrows to a single lane." He said he was at the village last Saturday morning and the single southbound lane was already starting to back up.

During the morning rush hours and on recent Sunday evenings the backup extends to several kilometres north of the village.

The problem is that while a second northbound lane has been built through the village the second southbound one is still under construction. (The two northbound lanes also have the advantage of an advanced leftturn signal.)

At the construction site Wednesday, an Aecon Construction & Materials Ltd. staff member said gravel is still being laid on the second southbound lane, but paving is not expected to be done until about the end of the month.

To avoid the inevitable backup at the village, those returning from the north this Labour Day weekend would be advised to detour west on Dufferin Road 109 south of Orangeville or Beechgrove Sideroad north of Caledon village and follow Willoughby Road south to Regional Road 24 and east to Caledon village, where there's an easy right turn back to Highway 10. Alternatively, Torontobound traffic could follow Highway 9 east to Kennedy or Heart Lake Road and follow them to Highway Peel 24 or all the way to Highway 410.

An Aecon official, speaking in the absence of administrator Jim Cascator, said Aecon is on schedule to finish the job this fall.