Toronto Lower Don Lands Redevelopment | ?m | ?s | Waterfront Toronto

hawc said:
^^^ I weep for the future.
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I think your tears are somewhat of an over-reaction. Not moving the road over to its new route for a few more weeks is hardly the end of the world and, as far as I can see, they are continuing to work on setting up to start excavating below the yellow bridge; they have several weeks of excavating before the current road will be 'in the way'.

I will not be amazed if they actually move it over only when they can open the red bridge too and open the new Cherry Street from Lake Shore & Cherry. The work at the Cherry / Lake Shore intersection is moving along well and they seem to be getting ready to grade the new Cherry Street between the red bridge and Lake Shore. They have already awarded the contract for the removal of the current Cherry St lift bridge across the Villiers Channel.
 
I was wondering how much earth do they need to leave at the mouth of the river so that it can still hold back the lake water. Would it be similar to the amount that was left at the don river/keating channel area. Is that how that whole process works.
 
Dinamo5 said:
I was wondering how much earth do they need to leave at the mouth of the river so that it can still hold back the lake water. Would it be similar to the amount that was left at the don river/keating channel area. Is that how that whole process works.
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The create some sort of a 'plug' at both ends and excavate all the earth behind it and THEN remove the plug (presumably designed so it can be removed easily. They will open the 'lake end' first so the valley can flood slowly and only then open the plug at the Keating Channel end. There is some info at https://portlandsto.ca/wp-content/uploads/12___earthworks_methodology_ch2m_1.pdf
 
A few recent pictures.

The assembly of this structure continues. They had similar equipment when the plug was installed a while back.

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And from the north side of the Cherry/Lakeshore intersection. Some paving and concrete pouring.
(hmm. odd pano artifact there.)
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hawc said:
Wonder when the date for that will be. I'd love to go watch.
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I imagine they will just bring a large crane an remove the lifting part of the bridge and then demolish the 'lift house' where they control it from. I doubt the concrete 'sides' of the channel will change. In short, I doubt it will be a show worth buying tickets for!
 
hawc said:
A crane that big will surely be a sight to see!
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The Cherry Street lift bridge over the Keating Channel was repaired a few years ago, at that time I saw them lifting parts of it on and off quite frequently; I don't think it will be (or could be?) all removed at once. Fun though that would be to see :->
 
DSC said:
The Cherry Street lift bridge over the Keating Channel was repaired a few years ago, at that time I saw them lifting parts of it on and off quite frequently; I don't think it will be (or could be?) all removed at once. Fun though that would be to see :->
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In theory anything is possible but it would be a pain in the ass to remove all at once no doubt.
 
achender said:
And from the north side of the Cherry/Lakeshore intersection. Some paving and concrete pouring.
(hmm. odd pano artifact there.)
PXL_20220920_213131791.PANO.jpg
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I was thinking of Aphex Twin's Window Licker vid when I first saw that, goodness...

(Slightly NSFW for those who look that up!)
 
Have just finished a "bingeread" 30 page catchup of this thread from about February to now, and first would like to express my appreciation for everyone posting pictures of the progress. A few thoughts:
  • One of the things that can bring excitement to the new facilities is to bring people to/through them, not just deliberately but also "in passing". While Cherry Beach is a draw, having a fixed link to the islands from the Portlands would bring a lot of eyeballs down the new streets, across the new bridges, past the new parks and developments. I can certainly understand why a vehicular passage would be generally opposed, but a tunnel which could bring an extended streetcar to an island loop, plus fire and EMS vehicles (with a lengthy cutoff area prior to the tunnel to sieve out people who try and drive it anyway) would be in my view a good thing - assuming that it can be done given the various challenges of infill/island soils etc. As it is, the existing ferries routes are too downtown-centric - this would relieve them.
  • I read with disappointment about the last days of the Harbour Lead. Yes, it wasn't heavily used in recent years, and yes, Metrolinx didn't want to keep the onward trackage, and yes, the Canada Post development severed the main link, but you know what? If the City and Waterfront Toronto wanted to keep that track I daresay it was doable. Instead, TTC shuttled 204 streetcars across town when the Harbour Lead almost touched Leslie Barns, and then back and forth again for rebuilds. Canada Post could have been told their construction was contingent on completion of the bypass trackage. Waterfront Toronto themselves could have used freight cars to move some of their huge quantities of material in or out. But instead, we saw the yard trackage lifted, and the Harbour Lead itself "disappear" from various maps and renders, very accidentally. Why would industrial users commit to using a facility being visibly disclaimed by the various governments and agencies? I do wonder if part of the last minute panicked lobbying of Council on this matter was not heavy industry realizing they were losing a needed facility, but that removal of the trackage was just one more contribution to industrial use being squeezed between condos and parks on the harbour side and film studios and other commercial use on the landward. So would I reverse this? No - like I said this is years in the making and Ports Toronto have clearly traded this for bridges and other things on their wishlist that was otherwise nowhere in close budgetary sight. But I wonder what else was "massaged" so the "right" result was obtained.
 
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