Jeff Morgan
Active Member
I'm sure many have already seen this but I'm putting it here for documentation purposes. What is happening in another city ->
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Roads: Gardiner Expressway catch-all, incl. Hybrid Design (2015-onwards)
- Thread starter jozl
- Start date
innsertnamehere
Superstar
This is after they buried it in a very, very expensive tunnel. Not sure if it's the best example.
amnesiajune
Senior Member
And the motivation there was mainly to avoid damage & injuries/deaths from a future earthquake.
And like every other example that people love to cite, there’s a much bigger freeway very close by — in this case, 10 lanes of Interstate 5 that are 500 meters away. I don’t think anyone would object to removing the Gardiner if there was a 10 lane freeway where Richmond and Adelaide are located.
W. K. Lis
Superstar
While Toronto is still worshipping the automobile, other cities around the world are banning them.
darth_freeman
Active Member
Work starts on the rehab of the Gardiner between Jarvis and Cherry Sts with closure of the WB offramp to York/Bay/Yonge for reconstruction starting tonight: https://www.cp24.com/news/it-will-n...-off-ramp-from-wb-gardiner-to-close-1.4508183
First part of the $2.3B work to rehab the existing highway. Closures of other ramps will follow later before this contract is completed in 2021.
If I lived close to work in a town of 300k I would probably bike too. A bit more difficult when you are 10km+ from the work place.
First part of the $2.3B work to rehab the existing highway. Closures of other ramps will follow later before this contract is completed in 2021.
If I lived close to work in a town of 300k I would probably bike too. A bit more difficult when you are 10km+ from the work place.
Northern Light
Superstar
I'm not sure why the alternatives to commuting by car are limited to cycling.
Transit is a perfectly reasonable option.
For shorter distances, walking is also quite reasonable.
What's being highlighted isn't just one city or one initiative. Its a determined effort, in many cities around the globe to shift away from a 'car first' line of thinking.
Part of such a shift is reducing expenses on maintaining high-cost auto-centric infrastructure by way of demolishing/narrowing highways, and/or by tolling them.
The key element in this is freeing up room in municipal/regional budgets to make additional investments in public transportation, and in the public realm, such as bike lanes, wider sidewalks and pedestrian-priority zones.
Put another way, if the choice were made to replace the eastern Gardiner with a lower-to-maintain grade-level road, the savings in costs might be enough to pay for the Waterfront East LRT and/or the GO Station at East Harbour. Making it easier for more people to choose alternatives to the car when commuting.
innsertnamehere
Superstar
Thought it might be interesting to note that Sydney opened the first phase of it's new underground M4 freeway this week.
The tunnel extends the M4 motorway 5.5km closer to downtown. It's the first of a 3 phase project that will create a new, almost entirely underground loop from the M4 to the M5 near the airport. This includes a new full free-flow interchange just north of the airport and several other complicated tunnel interchanges and access routes.
While the project won't run directly downtown, it will connect to the Western Distribution Freeway which is a downtown freeway that already exists and ends about 2km outside of downtown.
www.news.com.au
A map of the full project is available here:
The tunnel extends the M4 motorway 5.5km closer to downtown. It's the first of a 3 phase project that will create a new, almost entirely underground loop from the M4 to the M5 near the airport. This includes a new full free-flow interchange just north of the airport and several other complicated tunnel interchanges and access routes.
While the project won't run directly downtown, it will connect to the Western Distribution Freeway which is a downtown freeway that already exists and ends about 2km outside of downtown.
‘Congestion-busting at its best’
The first major stage of Sydney’s WestConnex project was officially opened to traffic at 2am this morning, more than three years after construction started on the $3.8 billion underground section.
www.news.com.au
A map of the full project is available here:
Towered
Superstar
I bike from central Etobicoke to work downtown and back every day. 15 km one way.
pman
Senior Member
Sure, Sydney has an extensive and growing tunnelled expressway system which is more often than not a delight to use. But Sydney tolls these roads, and that would be unacceptable in Toronto.Thought it might be interesting to note that Sydney opened the first phase of it's new underground M4 freeway this week.
The tunnel extends the M4 motorway 5.5km closer to downtown. It's the first of a 3 phase project that will create a new, almost entirely underground loop from the M4 to the M5 near the airport. This includes a new full free-flow interchange just north of the airport and several other complicated tunnel interchanges and access routes.
While the project won't run directly downtown, it will connect to the Western Distribution Freeway which is a downtown freeway that already exists and ends about 2km outside of downtown.
‘Congestion-busting at its best’
The first major stage of Sydney’s WestConnex project was officially opened to traffic at 2am this morning, more than three years after construction started on the $3.8 billion underground section.
A map of the full project is available here:
Juan_Lennon416
Senior Member
pstogios
Senior Member
He has a bizarre chip on his shoulder about cars.
Northern Light
Superstar
Is that particular comment a tad loaded? Perhaps.
But to be clear, it would be entirely reasonable in reference to the comments of @Juan_Lennon416, among others in a comparatively progressive and urban forum.
The clear reference here is that Toronto is one of very few cities, facing a decaying waterfront/downtown expressway to spend considerable sums maintaining, rather than removing it, burying it, or otherwise mitigating it.
That's not unfair or illogical. Its substantive and accurate.
Its not irrational or hyperbolic to point out that there might be better ways to spend the money when considering pollution, climate change, urban planning, housing demand etc.
achender
Active Member
I guess the ramp closure marks the start of the more disruptive aspects of the project but they've been working on the underside of the Gardiner for a few months now.
Some photos from this evening of the progress there.
The first two images are looking east from Jarvis.
This is looking east close to Sherbourne.
Looking west from Parliament.
Looking east from Parliament.
The prefabrication site seemed dormant for a while. But the construction of these large structures has started up again recently.
Some photos from this evening of the progress there.
The first two images are looking east from Jarvis.
This is looking east close to Sherbourne.
Looking west from Parliament.
Looking east from Parliament.
The prefabrication site seemed dormant for a while. But the construction of these large structures has started up again recently.
W. K. Lis
Superstar
TrickyRicky
Senior Member
To be fair Toronto’s existing highway network is skeletal and our existing motor vehicle transportation mode share is high.
Also, somehow highway discussions always centre on commuter interests. Where routes are commuter focused they have potential to convert users to other transportation modes. However, aren’t Cities primarily and more fundamentally logistics hubs? It’s great optics to say you are tearing down a downtown highway that has declined into a commuter route but it’s convenient to omit the likely massive build out of logistics infrastructure at the city perimeters that took over that highways original function.
Also, somehow highway discussions always centre on commuter interests. Where routes are commuter focused they have potential to convert users to other transportation modes. However, aren’t Cities primarily and more fundamentally logistics hubs? It’s great optics to say you are tearing down a downtown highway that has declined into a commuter route but it’s convenient to omit the likely massive build out of logistics infrastructure at the city perimeters that took over that highways original function.