JJTheJetPln
New Member
I was just watching CP24 while following up with the Mississauga byelection - Chow confirmed to CP24 that construction on the Gardiner Expressway is now 24/7. We'll see what that brings.
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Roads: Gardiner Expressway catch-all, incl. Hybrid Design (2015-onwards)
- Thread starter jozl
- Start date
kotsy
Senior Member
June 12th update
They're slowing taking apart the deck with hand tools instead of large sit-in excavators/drills. Not sure exactly how much is gone on top, but they've removed the guardrail and southern edge of the road well into the TTC loop area. They've also completely removed a sliver of roadbed/steel from the northern part of the work area directly above the now closed off section of GO passageway.
Starting with the west end of the site. Scaffolding gone perhaps in advance of reconstruction phase.
They're slowing taking apart the deck with hand tools instead of large sit-in excavators/drills. Not sure exactly how much is gone on top, but they've removed the guardrail and southern edge of the road well into the TTC loop area. They've also completely removed a sliver of roadbed/steel from the northern part of the work area directly above the now closed off section of GO passageway.
Starting with the west end of the site. Scaffolding gone perhaps in advance of reconstruction phase.
kotsy
Senior Member
June 13th update. They've made quite a big of progress in the last 24 hours. Most of the West section above the GO passageway has been removed (sans the steel supports), as well as the second section above the Streetcar loop area. Stay tuned for for bonus shots tomorrow 
Looking East towards Strachan.
Back on the West end with rebar trimming.
Looking East towards Strachan.
Back on the West end with rebar trimming.
JJTheJetPln
New Member
I barely travel to Toronto unless it's on the GO Train, so does it look like they've done a lot of work since switching to 24/7? Does it look like they've switched to 24/7 from your POV?June 13th update. They've made quite a big of progress in the last 24 hours. Most of the West section above the GO passageway has been removed (sans the steel supports), as well as the second section above the Streetcar loop area. Stay tuned for for bonus shots tomorrow
generalcanada
Senior Member
I saw her on 680's tiktok.
she says that they will have an updated timeline in 2 months.
Won't say how shortened the project is
They have the contractor, the province all asking how to speed it up
comparing that places in other countries can get it done much quicker
innsertnamehere
Superstar
I do feel like it's progressing relatively quickly, but man, soooo far to go still. Even with 24/7 it's not going to be a quick project.
Plus once this contract is done, there are just more contracts.. Just wait until they demolish the eastern Gardiner for a few years as they rebuild it. It's really not going to get any better until the mid 2030's when it's realistically all done.
The next phase is the at-grade portion of the Expressway through Etobicoke, so hopefully that one can be staged without lane closures and won't be as impactful (it's also not as congested in the first place). The phase after that is redoing 2.2km of the elevated expressway from Fort York to York St though, and that will be just as painful as this part.
Plus once this contract is done, there are just more contracts.. Just wait until they demolish the eastern Gardiner for a few years as they rebuild it. It's really not going to get any better until the mid 2030's when it's realistically all done.
The next phase is the at-grade portion of the Expressway through Etobicoke, so hopefully that one can be staged without lane closures and won't be as impactful (it's also not as congested in the first place). The phase after that is redoing 2.2km of the elevated expressway from Fort York to York St though, and that will be just as painful as this part.
afransen
Senior Member
They make it sound like the Gardiner will solve congestion. Relatively people actually use the Gardiner compared to transit to get downtown at peak.
kotsy
Senior Member
Bonus shots from yesterday. I have wings again!! Video to come 
Not from what I've seen. I was by there yesterday evening and there was no activity. Same for a couple days ago in the late afternoon. However, during a Ontario Line virtual piling session, 2 Liberty Village residents complained that noise from the Gardiner work was keeping them up at 130am and 330am so maybe it's not constant 24/7 but they are doing overnight shifts now?
Not from what I've seen. I was by there yesterday evening and there was no activity. Same for a couple days ago in the late afternoon. However, during a Ontario Line virtual piling session, 2 Liberty Village residents complained that noise from the Gardiner work was keeping them up at 130am and 330am so maybe it's not constant 24/7 but they are doing overnight shifts now?
Amare
Senior Member
I took some screenshots of Toronto traffic during the complete shutdown of the Gardiner following that major accident at York on June 12. Remember the accident happened around 2pm (before rush hour).
It was literally impossible to navigate almost anywhere in a 5km radius of the Gardiner or the DVP from the moment that happened. I was in the Don Mills/Eglinton area trying to get to Union station and the traffic was horrid literally everywhere.
Photo #1: As we can see with the North-South routes: University, Yonge, and Jarvis were clogged. Not shown here but Bay St was a clogged mess as well.
Photo #2: Shows the extent of the Gardiner closure. The DVP was clogged through the 404-401 interchange and Bayview, Broadview and Bloor took all of the overflow to which they couldnt handle.
Photo #3: Pretty self-explanatory. The DVP was a clogged mess.
Photo #4: Don Mills was a mess, Eglinton was a mess, Millwood was a disaster, Donlands was a joke
Photo #5: Zooming back out we can see the fuller effects. Yonge, University, Jarvis, Dundas, Bloor, Queen, Richmond, Adelaide, Queens Quay, Lakeshore were all clogged to MAX capacity. This also means that all surface routes that run on the streets were jammed and were delayed to points where the TTC couldnt operate on any kind of a schedule. I didnt even take a picture of the 401 but we already know what that was like.
So in short, let's remember this and frame these pictures for anytime there's the thought of tearing down the Gardiner. The city simply is not ready to handle the effects of that and until we have a transit network that's robust enough, it will not be ready anytime soon.
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kotsy
Senior Member
What you're leaving out is that every driver is out driving because they think the Gardiner will be operational. If it was torn down, there will be many people deciding it's not worth it to drive and hence, less congestion. Maybe not less than if the Gardiner was running, but certainly much less than the screen shots you've taken.
Amare
Senior Member
Most definitely this is true, there would be people who would shift their mode of transit but to a certain extent.
The reality is, if the Gardiner was torn down surrounding routes would have to take on the overflow, and this city simply isnt in a position today where it could absorb that. But I digress, I took the photos to illustrate (to an effect) what the impacts of how a major incident on the Gardiner can cripple the entire city as a whole.
DirectionNorth
Active Member
I don't disagree with this, but at the same time, I feel that there's a "minimum viable freeway" point (that is acceptable in our current society) and we're at that point. There's no such parallel for the DVP, but I think that looking at the surface routes, especially Lake Shore west of York, would probably produce similar results. The USRC sometimes feels like a bigger barrier walking down Yonge.
Maybe the "minimum viable freeway" case will change in 10 years with GO expansion, but I doubt it. We'll know then.
goreckm
Active Member
Imagine we had this kind of call to action and commitment to get the Eglinton line or the ontario line done quicker, an all hands on deck type of situation. Shows pretty clearly what is the actual priority here.
generalcanada
Senior Member
So I think this really shows the difference between the eglinton p3 contract and pretty much any other government contract.
with eglinton it means that the contractor is unwilling to make any changes, any kind of movement of the contract cant be done or is litterally illegal. See the lawsuits about delays
With the newer versions of p3 that are similar to a normal alliance type contract is where the 2 parties collaborate. Hell, even the gardiner project shows how normal contracts should work
I actually believe if we started the eglinton now, it would be done so much better
generalcanada
Senior Member
It is a good point. One that i dont think is talked about enough.
The gardiner will for sure become absolutely unusable in 10-15 years time. Toronto is still growing and even if you wanted to expand the gardiner/dvp you physically cant
It has a maximum capacity, one thats quickly approaching and will cause so many more problems