Trees and Bloor-Yorkville BIA dot com
First off, for those looking to keep up on this project, the local BIA (Business Improvement Area) has a website.
www.bloor-yorkville.com
Check out their newsletters for updates.
As I understand it, utilities construction is this year and early next, with streetscaping in 2008/2009.
The project was first conceived of 10 years ago....
But they had to get the money first.
This is by far the most expensive streetscape project in the history of the City of Toronto.
Its currently estimated at $20,000,000 (no mistake in the number of zeros there)
Their currently picking out the plant material.......their looking at Ginkos for some/all of the new street trees.
Not very Canadian...but pretty enough, and pretty durable.
The new planters are going to be multi-tree, deep-soil, auto-irrigated)
The other elements include decorative sidewalk treatment, completely new pedestrian lighting (wonder what they're going to do with the existing fixtures??), narrowing the road (no more parking on Bloor), and a few other goodies.
Major facade improvements are also being discussed.
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As for Toronto's street trees in general...
All newly planted Toronto trees are watered for two years.
Toronto no longer allows areas to be planted using the old-style box planters.
Any trees now have to be added in pits, trenches or extended lenght planters that hold more soil and more moisture.
Auto-irrigation is also required for any major new development, with respect to the adjacent streetscape.
Unfortunately, there is no money right now to water older trees.
Which is a year of record low rainfall, have not been faring well at all.