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Plans to fill in Allen Road

Scrub

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Does anyone know more about what the plan is? Are we talking a tunnel or removing the Allen altogether?

Fri Feb. 12 2010 9:02:38 AM

Plans to fill in Allen Road: report
Web Staff, cp24.com

A city councilor is proposing to fill in the Allen Expressway as part of a revitalization project from Lawrence Avenue to Yorkdale Road, according to reports.

The National Post says Councillor Howard Moscoe is pushing the idea to help overhaul social housing in the Lawrence Heights area by connecting it with a stronger neighbourhood setting.

The plan would take up to 15 years to complete, and the final draft goes before council this summer, the Post reports.

The redevelopment will make the expressway more pedestrian friendly to fit in with the residential neighbourhoods it divides and turn it into a boulevard-like road.

Moscoe told the newspaper the expressway has significant problems that need to be addressed. Public meetings on the plans are set to begin this month.

http://www.cp24.com/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100212/100212_allen/20100212/?hub=CP24Home
 
I'd much rather see the Gardiner demolished/buried before the Allan. This reminds me of that old Buckminster Fuller-inspired plan to use the ditch south of Lawrence as a development site and giant park and ride garage.
 
This project, though, is probably doable and deliverable on a much shorter time frame. The stretch of the Allen from Yorkdale to Lawerence already runs in a ditch/valley....so all that is missing from it being a tunnel is a roof and a ventilation system. Then it would create new lands for a variety of uses.

Unlike the gardiner which would need to actually be torn down and some kind of replacement created!
 
Good hate that stretch of road. By the time a car gets off the highway and makes a turn at eglinton 20 trains have gone by.
 
Instead of this thread having a link to an article about an article... here is the orignal article from the national post in question:
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/toronto/story.html?id=2552831
Raising the Allen to shoe level

Proposal would see expressway overhauled

Shirley Lin, National Post Published: Friday, February 12, 2010


The Allen Expressway, one of the city's major corridors connecting mid-Toronto to Highway 401, could soon be the subject of a massive redevelopment that would make it more pedestrian-friendly and bring its design more in tune with the residential neighbourhoods it dissects.

The plan is a part of the Lawrence-Allen Revitalization Project, a city initiative that aims to overhaul social housing bordering the expressway in the Lawrence Heights neighbourhood, and introduce mixed housing, seniors' residences, condos, commercial space, schools and plazas. The revitalization will take 10 to 15 years to complete.

Raising the trench-like Allen Road to the same level as its surrounding neighbourhood, seemlessly connecting it to crossroads from Lawrence Avenue north to Yorkdale Road, is high on the agenda for the area's councillor, Howard Moscoe.

"I do not prefer the do-nothing option, I can rule that one out," said Mr. Moscoe (Eglinton-Lawrence). "It will be better than it is now. We have significant problems at Allen and Lawrence that need to be addressed and resolved."

This summer, city council will take delivery of the project's final draft plan, one that does please all the local residents. Public meetings to discuss the redevelopment are to begin this month.

If approved, the redevelopment would represent the death knell of the only remnant of the Spadina Expressway, the proposed north-south freeway that was extinguished from the planning boards in 1971 after public opposition led by urban theorist Jane Jacobs and scholar Marshall Mc-Luhan.

An email to residents circulated by opponents to the plan questions whether the expressway redesign is Mr. Moscoe's "last gasp in his war on cars."

"It has long been rumoured that Howard Moscoe has plans to bury the Allen Expressway and replacing it with a boulevard," says the email. "Renaming it as 'Allen Road' was probably the first step, so killing another expressway wouldn't sound so bad. Now, as Howard expects to be defeated for reelection to city council or risks losing his NDP majority on council, are the planned meetings for this project his swan song?"

The study, conducted by Arup Canada, an engineering consulting firm, recommends turning the corridor into a boulevard-like street, raising the entire strip from just south of Lawrence Avenue to Ranee Avenue before Yorkdale Station to make it even with the surrounding landscape. The redesign would require extensive filling.

A single intersection would be created at Lawrence Avenue with a new crossing to Flemington Road and would consist of multiple intersections with pedestrian crossings.

The study warns the redevelopment would come with a high price tag but does not provide a specific dollar amount. Construction costs include decking, relocating the bus terminal at Lawrence West station and adding new walls to support the subway station.

Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/toronto/story.html?id=2552831#ixzz0fMMRB40Q
The National Post is now on Facebook. Join our fan community today.
 
So the Expressway would run under this new Boulevard or will it be replace the Expressway, and if so what goes where the Expeessway used to be.
 
I'd be interested to seethe draft plan, but from that article I can't really understand the point of this project.

Why not build a roof on top the expressway & subway and make it into a real nice park, instead?
 
Guys,
The silly old Bugger is yanking your chain!
 
I don't understand this. Decking over the expressway doesn't sound like would be more expensive and it would leave it as a high speed road without any intersections. The neighbourhood would be reconnected with parks and new development on top.
 
I remember reading something like this years ago when they had a plan to deck the expressway with a park on top to reconnect the neighbourhoods. Alas, they're never going to finish this...
 

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