Ward8
Active Member
Difficult to say when it will actually finish, but Metrolinx says it will roll out between 2025 and 2032.And how long until GO Electrification is done? (I don't count the Ontario Line, because it will be of very little value to people coming from out of town).
It certainly won't be any time soon.
The Ontario line follows the same route as the DVP, so it brings significant value to out of towners by pulling cars off that road. That said, the timing could be a disaster for period of a couple years.
At this point, I'm not sure it's a traffic related decision. The hybrid option is bankrupting the city. Unless the province steps in with funding, the prudent thing to do is tear it down and build a boulevard. There would be a modest savings, even with the sunk costs, plus increased development fees and property taxes from the newly developable land. The Gardiner is killing the budget so badly that no traffic situation is really able to justify its rebuild. I think it should be torn down regardless, but a 2km stretch of elevated expressway can't be 50% of the capital budget over 10 years. It's just not that important.In my opinion the hybdrid option was the best option that was presented. The tunnel was a non starter. Unless the city was bold enough to tear down the entire Gardiner and just widen Lakeshore, having a disconnect for the short stretch between Jarvis and DVP would not be worth the traffic mess it would create in that portion. Think of what Eglinton and Allen look like when an expressway ends as a regular road with traffic lights. It creates a bottleneck.
This solution does do something good in that I believe I heard that the new hybrid will be only 2 lanes wide to match DVP at that point and the exit east to Lakeshore is removed so it becomes more like a direct connection between Jarvis and DVP with no other exits / entry points.