Danforth Line 2 Scarborough Subway Extension

[salsa]

The Star now has their story out on this. Looks like this will not be going away anytime soon.


Scarborough politicians push Big Bend for subway route

Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker and Liberal MPP Brad Duguid are asking city planners to study an alternate alignment for the one-stop extension. They argue the new route, which has the backing of a local community group, could reduce traffic disruptions and eliminate the need to expropriate property to build the subway.

Critics say that the new subway path, which would be roughly 280 metres longer than the alignment preferred by city planning staff, would be more expensive, may not be feasible, and studying it could delay the subway project. But De Baeremaeker described it as a “viable, reasonable option.”

“It’s called the magic of public input, of actually asking people who live in a community what they think of large-scale projects in their community,” said De Baeremaeker. He said residents who support the plan “are people who actually know the area better than the engineers who are drawing on a computer from A to B.”

He said he raised the plan with Mayor John Tory earlier this week and Tory was open to reviewing it. He wasn’t worried that studying the Big Bend would add further delays.

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/20...liticians-push-big-bend-for-subway-route.html

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

Exactly. His willingness to sell out the many Scarborough transit riders who won't see any benefit from this configuration makes a mockery of his whole campaign to get Scarborough "its fair share".

Build the one-stop extension if we must - but stop there and get the DRL going.

- Paul

Of course. It was never about "fairness" it was about envy. Of course now the Crosstown East has to be built for those east of McCowan and the Subway can't stop just at STC if the SRT alignment is used. There are good things. But this is so sneaky and underhanded. Progres will be one of the busier stations because STC will overflow pretty quickly if this is built.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

Seems to be something fishy. Don't have a copy, but did the 2016 TTC report make any mention of the 2013 Metrolinx report? And did Council ever make any mention of the Metrolinx report at any time? Perhaps the Star should put some of their SSE witch hunt focus on why this report was practically ignored/buried.

I've analyzed the reports to see where they disagree regarding the feasibility of building the extension at-grade. To make this an apples-to-apples comparison, I’m only looking at the components of the Metrolinx report that are west of Scarborough Centre Station. There are significant disparities between these two reports, which I've detailed below. Most surprisingly, it appears that the underground one-stop to McCowan option is 3x more expensive than the Metrolinx-recommended SRT corridor option ($2.6 Billion vs. $0.9 Billion; in $2016; not including contingencies; only includes cost to construct). This Metrolinx-recommended option is the same option TTC claimed was too expensive and complicated to build.

I'm comparing the following two reports:
TTC: http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2016/ex/bgrd/backgroundfile-94622.pdf
Metrolinx: http://www.metrolinx.com/en/docs/pdf/20130910_Scarborough_Subway_Feasibility_Study.pdf

The TTC's Loop Option:

This 6.2 km option created by the TTC begins by running east, parallel to Eglinton Avenue, then curves north and finally west to meet the SRT corridor, forming a "loop" formation. The line reaches at-grade at some point just south of Lawrence Avenue, continues running at-grade for 1.4 km until Ellesmere Avenue. At Ellesmere, it runs underground for 1.8 km to Scarborough Centre Station.

The Metrolinx Option (ignoring sections east of SCC):

The ~6.5 km Metrolinx option relocates the Kennedy Station box to align it with the hydro horror just north of Kennedy Station. About 0.3 k northwest of Kennedy Station, it reaches grade and continues at-grade for 4.0 km until Ellesmere Rd. Finally, the line runs elevated for 1.8 km between Ellesmere Avenue and Scarborough Centre Station.

Length of at-grade sections
Note: I’ve made no distinction between portal structures and underground structures. The entire length of the portals are considered to be underground, for the purposes of this discussion.

Metrolinx claims the lengths of the grading for their alignment in the SRT corridor would be approximately, 0.3 km underground, 3.7 km at-grade, 1.8 km elevated.

TTC claims the lengths of the grading for their alignment in the SRT corridor would be 5.3 km underground and 1.4 km at-grade. The longer underground section of the TTC’s option relative to the Metrolinx option is due to:

1. The loop east of Kennedy Station, of approximately 3.5 km in length. The details of the Kennedy Loop are addressed in the next section.
2. Between Ellesmere and Scarborough Centre Station, the grading of the TTC option goes underground for approximately 1.8 km to avoid the GO tracks. Metrolinx claims that the line can be elevated for this same section, which is presumably cheaper. It is not explained why TTC felt it necessary for this 1.8 km section to be underground, or why they did not consider elevating.

Pricing of Loop vs. Kennedy Station Relocation
Metrolinx claims the loop option recommended by the TTC was too expensive, and thus recommended a solution that would involve rebuilding Kennedy Station to align it with the SRT corridor:
“…In order to connect from the tail tracks back to the existing SRT corridor, a significant (underground) loop would be required and the alignment would get back on the SRT corridor just south of Lawrence Avenue. This is not considered practical nor cost effective…”

However, TTC says that the loop option is cheaper than the Metrolinx option:
“The option proposed by Metrolinx was ruled out because, of the two [Metrolinx proposed vs. Loop] , it would be much more costly and have more significant construction impacts.”

These two reports are in direct contradiction with regards to which of the two options (loop vs. rebuilt Kennedy) are cheaper. However, of the two reports, only the Metrolinx report included a detailed cost analysis of rebuilding Kennedy Station (the option TTC claims is too expensive, but Metrolinx believes is cheaper).

Edit: Looking at Metrolinx's Order-Of-Magnitude Cost Estimate for the SRT surface alignment, they anticipated that construction related to the relocation of Kennedy Station would cost approximately $571 Million. The TTC claims this option is too costly, and would rather build a large loop. The TTC didn't specify exactly how large the loop is, but based on the distance measured in Google Maps, and the numbers in the report, it would be between 2 km and 3.5 km large. On the low end, tunnelling on the Scarborough Subway (not including stations) will cost around $300 Million/km*. So with this loop being at least 2 km large, under no circumstance would this loop be cheaper than Metrolinx's anticipated cost of $571 Million to relocate Kennedy Station, unless Metrolinx's estimate was way off the mark. Unfortunately, the TTC provided no explanation regarding why the Kennedy relocation would be more expensive than the loop.

*At some point recently, the TTC stated the cost of building tunnels without stations. Does anyone here recall what that was?

Construction Staging and Disruption to Line 2 Service
The TTC report says, “The [Metrolinx recommended] option would have resulted in a longer alignment constructed on the surface but would require a temporary closure of the subway east of Warden Station.”

While technically true, the TTC fails to mention that the length of the temporary closure would be rather minor. Metrolinx addresses this:
“The new Kennedy Station can be constructed with only minor disruption to the operation of the existing Kennedy Station.”

The Metrolinx report goes on to mention that the structures for the relocated Kennedy Station can be built while Old Kennedy Station is in operation. Service would then be suspended for some time so build the tie-in between the existing tunnels and Relocated Kennedy Station:
“In order to facilitate the proposed special trackwork within the existing subway tunnel immediately west of Kennedy Road, a new tunnel structure can be built over the existing box structure to allow demolition of the existing box including centre piers at a later stage. The construction of the tie#in to the existing tunnel would require shut down of the Bloor# Danforth Subway between Warden and Kennedy Stations for a certain period of time and a temporary replacement bus service between those two stations.”

The “minor disruption” to the operations of Kennedy Station would not occur until after Eglinton Line is open, which would open up an alternate route for westbound commuters at Kennedy Station for the duration of the disruption. GO Rail services could also be utilized to provide alternate routing during the temporary disruption, in addition to traditional TTC replacement bus services.

Neither report provided a detailed analysis of the timelines of the length of the shutdown.

The TTC report then mentions concerns regarding the construction of the grading near Kennedy Station:
“In addition to demolishing and reconstructing Kennedy Station, the approaching tracks would need to be lowered beginning west of Kennedy Road to allow the subway to pass under the Eglinton Crosstown LRT line and access the SRT corridor.”

The Metrolinx report did not explicitly address this concern. However, they did include detailed maps with grading profiles with their report. I trust that they considered the Eglinton LRT in their evaluation.

Pricing:
The TTC did not provide a pricing estimate for the surface alignment including the the Kennedy Loop option or the Kennedy Station Relocation. Metrolinx only provided an estimate for the surface alignment including Kennedy Station relocation.

Below are costs of the currently approved one-stop McCowan express vs. the Metrolinx suface alignment including Kennedy relocation (between Kennedy and SCC). Both options only include cost to construct. They do not include financing, lifecycle, operation/maintenance or contingencies. The cost of the SRT alignment was derived by subtracting Metrolinx’s cost of elements east of SCC from the total estimated cost in Metrolinx’s Order-of-Magnitude Cost Estimate.

Express McCowan Option (One stop - Kennedy to SCC): $2.545 Billion ($2016, TTC)

SRT Alignment Option (Two Stops - Kennedy to SCC): $0.832 Billion ($2011, Metrolinx)

Adjusted for inflation, the SRT alignment option costs $0.88 Billion in $2016. Note that inflation adjustment is rudimentary and does not include changes in cost of building, materials, etc...

Note: Can anyone here confirm that the pricing the the Express McCowan Option does not include contingencies.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

An important addition to my previous post:
Looking at Metrolinx's Order-Of-Magnitude Cost Estimate for the SRT surface alignment, Metrolinx anticipated that construction related to the relocation of Kennedy Station would cost approximately $571 Million. The TTC claims this option is too costly, and that the large loop would be more cost effective. The TTC didn't specify exactly how large the loop is, but based on the distance measured in Google Maps, and the numbers in the report, it would be between 2 km and 3.5 km large. On the low end, tunnelling on the Scarborough Subway (not including stations) will cost around $300 Million/km*. So with this loop being at least 2 km large, under no circumstance would this loop be cheaper than Metrolinx's anticipated cost of $571 Million to relocate Kennedy Station, unless Metrolinx's estimate was way off the mark. Unfortunately, the TTC provided no explanation regarding why the Kennedy relocation would be more expensive than the loop.

*At some point recently, the TTC stated the cost of building tunnels without stations. Does anyone here recall what that was?

The TTC is claiming that the Kennedy Station relocation is too pricey to justify the SRT surface alignment, yet they've provided no justification for why it's too expensive, nor have they detailed what is wrong in the Metrolinx report. They then go on to recommend we spend at least an additional $1.7 Billion on an underground alignment compared to the Metrolinx option. The numbers aren't adding up, as explained above. There's something fishy about all this.

 

[crs1026]

*At some point recently, the TTC stated the cost of building tunnels without stations. Does anyone here recall what that was?

The TTC is claiming that the Kennedy Station relocation is too pricey to justify the SRT surface alignment, yet they've provided no justification for why it's too expensive, nor have they detailed what is wrong in the Metrolinx report. They then go on to recommend we spend at least an additional $1.7 Billion on an underground alignment compared to the Metrolinx option. The numbers aren't adding up, as explained above. There's something fishy about all this.

It was discussed in the verbal questioning of staff when the last big set of reports went to Council. I recall the TTC representative (not Byford - someone closer to project planning) saying that doing only the minimum rough-in of future stations on the STC line would only knock a few hundred millions off the cost of the original 3 stop plan.

PS - really superb analysis, Tigermaster. Nothing like facts to bring us back to sane discussion.

- Paul

 

[Mr_Praline]

“It’s called the magic of public input, of actually asking people who live in a community what they think of large-scale projects in their community,” said De Baeremaeker. He said residents who support the plan “are people who actually know the area better than the engineers who are drawing on a computer from A to B.”

It's not often that the elected officials publicly show their true opinions on City staff. I appreciate that a retired planner came up with this proposal, but man, does it ever scare me that one of our elected officials admitted on the record to thinking any of the following, let alone all of it:

• Professional staff just randomly come up with things like rapid transit routes
• Having come up with said routes, do not analyze them through every possible angle (also it's quite literally THE LAW to do this in Ontario)
• Elected officials have no say in what staff are studying

Then again, there are some councillors who do make a habit of being surprised by, and disbelieving in, the conclusions found in City reports that are prepared by professional staff, so I guess anything is possible. City staff analyze things because they are directed to do so, either by the Deputy City Manager / Mayor's office or by the elected officials themselves. Period. It is not encouraged to pursue random projects because that would be wasteful of taxpayer dollars.

That's another thing that irks me about that TTC memo stuff - there's no way any member of the City staff would produce something like that unless expressly ordered to do so by someone in a position of power.

 

[EnviroTO]

This new alignment shows why Scarborough will never have transit. After barely getting city council to a point where they accepted a compromise on Scarborough getting a subway rather than an LRT, the Scarborough councillors propose the bend to further their Sheppard subway interests. It was so predictable. Of course they wouldn't find a way to use route that makes use of an existing surface level SRT corridor because the end of the line would not line up with the desired Sheppard subway route into Scarborough Centre. Next they say this "big bend" is to save some houses and a woodlot, but last time I checked subway tunnels have the ability to go under things leaving them pretty much undisturbed (e.g. https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.7548...4!1sKwlnsZEMGeXnZpNfpoooog!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 ). The only good reasons I heard for not using the SRT corridor was related to a desire to free up the corridor for straighter corridor alignments and the possibility of 3 RER tracks in the future, and the desire to keep the SRT running during construction. However, with all the analysis done you would expect to see a single document with all the considered options and routings, subway and LRT, and the scorings for each. One would expect Metrolinx and TTC reports to be on the same page. But with only crazy loops to the SRT corridor at Kennedy being considered for the subway routing, and a need for the big curve at Scarbrough Centre it seems the agenda is becoming quite clear.

 

[Zach6668]

What is it being used for - a museum. When the new alignment is built, roughly 150m by 50m would be freed up.

Figure 5 from Metrolinx Report.
View attachment 90121

I think the ship has sailed on this thing.

A lot of man hours and money have been poured into designing the Kennedy LRT station, which will be underground at that location, with the portal to the west of Kennedy Rd, crossing right where they put the realigned station box. Unless they plan on digging that thing down even lower? Oh, and also entirely re-imagining the LRT/Subway interface, which is well into ~60% design phase, with an SPA being submitted imminently, and shoring plans developed, etc.


Anyways, I like the SRT alignment, but it's going to be really costly to go back to it now.

The LRT station is designed to allow both an easterly extension of the Crosstown (10% design of tracks to a portal to the east) as well as the SSE extension as imagined eastward (as it can turn under the LRT once it surfaces).

 

[Mr_Praline]

Matt Elliott@GraphicMatt
1 hour ago
Since when can neighbourhood associations direct staff to study subway alignments? https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/20...liticians-push-big-bend-for-subway-route.html

View attachment 90134

Yep. And who do you think they submitted it to? And then directed City staff to study it?

 

[PMT]

Scarborough Subway Extension - geotechnical and general survey work along McCowan Corridor
October 19 to November 30, 2016
This week crews will begin preparatory geotechnical drilling and general survey activities along the McCowan corridor in various locations for the future Scarborough subway extension of Line 2.

Upcoming works

• Geotechnical crews will drill 55 boreholes in the road and in the City boulevard (right-of-way) to determine the underground conditions along the future subway corridor.
• Intermittent lane closures along McCowan Road, Borough Drive, Progress Avenue, Danforth Road and Eglinton Avenue East will be in effect for the duration of the geotechnical work.
• Survey crews will also be in place to determine the exact location of surface and underground infrastructure.

Timing

• Geotechnical works along this corridor will begin October 19, 2016, and are expected to continue until the end of November 2016.
• General survey works will also take place along the corridor this fall until the end of the year.
• Geotechnical and survey works will be conducted between the hours of approximately 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday to Friday.
• The work areas will be restored with sod and/or asphalt where required in the spring of 2017.

What to expect

• Lane closures can be expected, beginning in the Borough Drive area, on or after October 19. Equipment and work trucks will be present along the subway alignment as crews move from one borehole to the next.
• Drilling crews will be at each borehole location for approximately six weeks.
• You may experience dust, noise and vibration related to drilling, saw-cutting, hydro-vaccing, and the use of heavy equipment. Efforts will be made to keep noise and dust levels to a minimum.
• Temporary spray paint markings will be used in the road and sidewalk.

Traffic and Transit impacts

• Lane closures along McCowan Road, Borough Drive, Progress Avenue, Danforth Road and Eglinton Avenue East will be in effect between 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. for the duration of the work. Work along these roads will take place outside of peak morning and afternoon traffic flow direction. For example southbound McCowan Road work will take place from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and northbound work from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• 16 McCowan, 34 Eglinton East and 190 Scarborough Centre Rocket bus service will not be impacted.
• Pedestrian walkways and property access will be maintained at all times.
• As always, please take care when travelling near work sites.

Thank you for your patience as we work to improve transit in Toronto.

Please see the original construction notice

, which includes a map of the McCowan Corridor.

For further information:
Christina Joseph, Community Liaison Officer, 416-994-0923, christina.joseph@ttc.ca.

 

[salsa]

Thank you for your patience as we work to improve transit in Toronto.

Yeah we'll need it.

 

[Hopkins123]

They may as well go up Brimley at this point, if preserving the existing Kennedy and Scarborough Centre stop locations is the goal.

If extending the Sheppard subway to the Town Centre is a motivating factor for the "big bend" they could still accomplish this per such an alignment with even a St George style interchange likely.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Ah, fellows!

Aren't they cutting things a little close?

Demolition Work for Future Kennedy Station

October 26, 2016
What work is Taking Place?

• Pending TTC approval and City of Toronto permits, two properties along the Eglinton Avenue East corridor will be demolished to make way for construction at Kennedy Station to accommodate the new Eglinton Crosstown LRT Project.
• The properties are located at 2433 (Tikka House property) and 2439 Eglinton Avenue East (Former Canada Post Building) on the south side of Eglinton Avenue East.
• Both buildings will be demolished and the area will be backfilled to grade with soil that meets applicable standards.

Timing

• Demolition works will last for approximately twelve weeks and are expected to start as early as mid-November, subject to approval.
• Demolition work will occur Monday to Friday.
• Work is permitted between 7:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m. The majority of the work will occur between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.
• Work could be rescheduled due to weather conditions or unforeseen circumstances.

What to Expect

• Every effort will be made to minimize any disruption to those in the area.
• All work will be contained within the Former Canada Post Building and Tikka House property boundaries.
• Demolition will be done by conventional methods, using machines with various attachments operating from the exterior of the building.
• Residents and businesses near the work site can expect to hear noise caused by trucks, machines, hand tools, mini-excavators, mini-loaders, and/or large excavators with specialized demolition attachments, such as shears, pulverisers, grapples and hydraulic hammers as required.

Traffic and Pedestrian Details

• No traffic impacts are expected to complete this work.
• Sidewalk and property access will be maintained.
• Please take care when travelling near construction areas. Watch for additional signs directing pedestrians as detours may be required.

From link. A bit like missing the cruise ship as it leaves port, isn't it?

 

[Palma]

Matt Elliott@GraphicMatt
1 hour ago
Since when can neighbourhood associations direct staff to study subway alignments? https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/20...liticians-push-big-bend-for-subway-route.html

View attachment 90134

so does this mean any community alliance or association can submit transit plans?

 

[BurlOak]

or does it mean we are cancelling the EA process, abandoning the whole Jane Jacobs movement, and allowing experts to plan?