Toronto CityPlace Puente de Luz Bridge | ?m | ?s | Concord Adex | Francisco Gazitua

[interchange42]

The difference is that all those bridges are above beautiful rivers or bodies of water. Nobody's going to stop and gaze over the train tracks.

Though I do think we need something better than what's been proposed, this is no place for a landmark bridge. Now, a bridge to the island on the other hand...

People do stop and watch trains from bridges that cross train tracks. During March Break I saw a lot of families on the SkyWalk (going to something likely horrible and kid-friendly at the SkyDome) and the kids were plastered up against the glass watching GO Trains rumble by below...

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[Tuscani01]

Who can forget Paris? I didn't keep my eye out for pedestrian only bridges but I did spot this one. Between the Louvre and D'orsay. Again, like the Charles bridge it's old but has some flavour to it. The nice wood planks, the light standards, and more.

omg look at those green garbage bags just hanging there. So un-world-class-like.

Toronto > Paris

I think a covered bridge over the railway tracks will be better than an open bridge. Lets face it, this is Canada. Winter is much longer than summer. An open bridge would be windswept and impassible during the winter.

This is definitely better than everything posted here:

 

[Automation Gallery]

I think a covered bridge over the railway tracks will be better than an open bridge. Lets face it, this is Canada. Winter is much longer than summer. An open bridge would be windswept and impassible during the winter.

Yeah i agree, plus dont forget that Canadians are known to jump off bridges, let alone that our kids are throwing rocks at passing trains.

 

[jks]

I'd rather have it SkyWalk-like, meaning with glass, but that doesn't mean it can't still be an interesting design.

 

[ProjectEnd]

omg look at those green garbage bags just hanging there. So un-world-class-like.

Toronto > Paris

Yet there are more garbage cans on that bridge than there are around most of downtown Toronto.

Paris > Toronto.

 

[mettle]

i find myself torn. sometimes i want them to do something exceptional.
sometimes i just want them to do something, anything.

i remember viewing plans for the loblaws on bathurst and lakeshore. the plans were okay, but not great. people protested. it was sent back for revision. it has been in development hell ever since (afaik).

 

[Torontovibe]

Great to see this topic pop up while I was away!
This is Concord's starting point. They obviously are not willing to spend a lot of money on this and are crossing fingers that the City chips in some dough.

I called Adam Vaughan's office today (as well as my local councillor, Pam McConnell) and spoke to his assistant about the bridge. I was told that this will not be the design of the bridge. The basic design of the bridge has not been established yet. She said Vaughan cares very much about the design and he will make sure that the beauty of the bridge is a top priority. I feel a little bit relieved. (but just a little bit) I still have some hope that something a bit more stylish and appropriate (for a "world class city" ) will get built.

 

[Automation Gallery]

i remember viewing plans for the loblaws on bathurst and lakeshore. the plans were okay, but not great. people protested. it was sent back for revision. it has been in development hell ever since (afaik).

First time i heard of this, Are you sure that there was a protest against a supermarket being built at that location?

 

[Hydrogen]

I agree that there are constraints which must be met, but I am unconvinced that this is the best design for this bridge. Furthermore, what's so unique about our rail corridor in relation to other cities? (Except that because rail corridor graffiti gets buffed here, it's a lot less colorful)

I agree that it's not the best design as it is preliminary and has been presented in the most primitive form. Both Concorde and the city have been stymied by GO with respect to where this bridge can go and how high it must be. GO won't budge on its demands and it tends to treat the rail corridor as a domain exclusive of the city.

A while back, I was at a meeting where Adam Vaughan kinda ripped into GO for not understanding the process of city-building while at the same time recognizing that they (GO) are working with an out-of-date signaling system and have tried to increase train frequency. GO does not care about bridge or its aesthetics, the city wants the bridge to be built, and Concord has a limited time to fulfill its obligation. If anything, Concord is stuck in the middle.

 

[DSC]

First time i heard of this, Are you sure that there was a protest against a supermarket being built at that location?

The problem was, if I remember right, that the plans were to built some great highrise on top of the existing building - which is listed. There's a separate thread at http://www.urbantoronto.ca/showthread.php?t=3954

The City report on their latest (???) plan is at: http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/2005/agendas/committees/te/te051115/it009a.pdf

I don't think the idea of having a supermarket there was the issue.

 

[mettle]

Hmmm... It was a while ago... When Olivia Chow was councillor.

If I remember correctly (which isn't all the often), Loblaws wanted to replace much of the south facade with new material and a huge logo (Canadian Superstore).

It looked much more like their regular stores.

Some people (many perhaps) wanted the store to retain much more of its original features.

 

[3Dementia]

She said Vaughan cares very much about the design and he will make sure that the beauty of the bridge is a top priority

^ While this is encouraging, in a Dec.29/07 Star article Vaughan called GO's suggested clear span idea ridiculous because services would have to be interrupted for months (see below). That is bull..... while a clear span bridge will obviously require a heftier budget, cantilever cable-stayed deck construction techniques guarantee zero interruption of train service.

Dan Francey, GO Transit's manager of transportation planning and development, says "We haven't seen a version that works for our future plans or our flexibility," he says, adding that GO has proposed a clear-span (no supporting columns) design, an idea that doesn't seem to work for either Concord Adex or the city.

"That's ridiculous," Vaughan says. "They know the only way to build a clear-span bridge is to shut down service for three to four months. They won't let that happen."

While Concord Adex VP Alan Vihant says the clear-span idea is "completely unacceptable," he doesn't think the city is doing enough to help his 2,200 residents who are caught in limbo.

TORONTO STAR ARTICLE "A bridge to far."
http://www.thestar.com/living/article/288615

Found this MetroMan pitch for a Humber-style bridge from nearly a year ago... most of it actually makes sense:

This site provides a description of how the Humber Bridge was built, consistent with what I had in mind for the Portland bridge:

1 - Manufacture the parts off site
2 - Assemble the arches immediately near the site
3 - Raise each arch, one at a time via a crane and fit them into place. This would require shutting down the tracks – for safety purposes – for several hours... not weeks.

Now here's where the bridge would be built specifically with a method for building above the tracks without interrupting its schedule...

4 - Once the arches were set and the concrete cured, a high tension cable would be hooked near the base of each arch to the other side of the span. You'd have two cables running parallel across the span.
5 - Lay a protective net or wooden planks along those cables to protect trains/people below from construction hazards on the bridge.

(The feet of the bridge would be further apart than the centre like the Humber Bridge. Hence, a net reaching all four feet would cover the entire construction area above. Hooks would be built into the feet for this purpose.)

6 - Finish the bridge with the peace of mind of the protective net/planks
7 - Remove net/planks and cables

.... now, I'm not an engineer but this seems like a very reasonable and doable method for building a free spanning bridge without closing GO tracks "for weeks".

-

Concord Adex is working with artists on the design of the bridge and exploring options to introduce colour and shape, embedding text or art objects into the trusses, lighting and markers at the edges, landing and lookout points, etc.

If box truss dressed in a Hallowe'en costume is all we get... perhaps they could build on an earlier Cityplace footbridge design which was fairly well executed (the east/west footbridge between Matrix and Apex) by glazing the new bridge and giving it a sort of "Birdsnest Stadium" shell:

 

[jks]

I really wouldn't mind that! And it's still techinically box truss

 

[Tuscani01]

Funny, I thought about the Matrix bridge last night too. I think it would look great.

 

[marcus_a_j]

excellant render 3D!! I had the Matrix/Apex bridge in mind as well last week.