I am not a transit planner by any means, but I was just curious: this project is going to take quite a while to complete. But, there are three major components to this project: the tunnel from Black Creek to Yonge, the tunnel from Leaside to Yonge, and the at-grade section from Leaside to Kennedy road.
In the grand scheme of things, tunnels are not really major components, but rather what can be best described as a low rung on the long ladder that is the project.
Obviously there is even more than that, but even with these parts it seems that everything is being done one at a time.
That's because a lot of it does have to be done one-at-a-time. You can't install the tracks, lighting, signalling, ventilation, power distribution, etc. until the tunnel is complete, and even then there are additional things that need to be done once the tunnel has been bored.
About the only thing that you can do in parallel with the tunnels is the stations and emergency exits, and they have started on those.
Why? Why are we only tunnelling one of the tunnels now? Why havent any of the other parts started yet?
Why should they?
Okay, maybe that's not completely fair. The western tunnels are much longer, and considering that there is a known rate at which EPB TBMs can dig at, they can (and have) estimated that it will take considerably longer to bore the western tunnels than it will the eastern ones. There is no need/incentive to finish the eastern tunnels first, thus they have started them later.
What stopped the other tunnel boring machines from starting now, and why can't we have started the above ground portion at the same time?
There is a lot of infrastructure that needs to be built to support the TBMs before they can even start driving. It took over a year to construct it out in the west end, and that's what they are doing now in the east.
As for the above-ground section, it can be done quite quickly and thus there's no incentive to get it started now. As others have also pointed out, doing it now would also require the funds to flow for it now.
Did we run out of construction workers?
Nope, not even close.
Dan
Toronto, Ont.
