Toronto GO Transit: Davenport Diamond Grade Separation | ?m | ?s | Metrolinx

Undead said:
It's really not visually intrusive at all. There wouldn't be any negative aesthetic effect from slinging these over our large suburban arterials.
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It’s a good learning experiment for the city, but it’s too soon to say what worked and what can be improved. It’s not the horror that some predicted.

My one observation so far is that it was a mistake to place the south headwall of the guideway so close to the sidewalk at Wallace. There is already a worsening of the ambience there. Had the designers placed even one more span southwards, with the abutment that little bit further away from the road, the airiness of that space could have been maintained.

We will see how it looks when the catenary, sound walls, etc are added - and trains start rumbling along it.

- Paul
 
ProjectEnd said:
I do wonder if the south connection to the Railpath will ever materialize. It should, and I'm hopeful long-term, but I'm just unsure of the timeline...
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I don't think it's funded (only the extension of the current Railpath is) so if it will happen some day...it's a long time away.
 
ProjectEnd said:
I do wonder if the south connection to the Railpath will ever materialize. It should, and I'm hopeful long-term, but I'm just unsure of the timeline...
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I get the skepticism because this is Metrolinx, but it sounds like it is planned and funded -- weirdly, in the budget for the King-Liberty SmartTrack, not Bloor-Lansdowne like you might expect.

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It will be interesting to see how they design the path through the Bloor-Lansdowne station. Two tracks, two or three platforms, private property up against the edges of the corridor...plus stairways, elevators, etc. Hopefully it can still leave room for a useful path through there.
 
vic said:
It will be interesting to see how they design the path through the Bloor-Lansdowne station. Two tracks, two or three platforms, private property up against the edges of the corridor...plus stairways, elevators, etc. Hopefully it can still leave room for a useful path through there.
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Some hints can be found in the renders from the presentation slides shown at the last public meeting:
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The most recent presentation on the ML website shows a connection at Lappin/Antler.

Is there any evidence of a change in that ?

- Paul

PS - perhaps the complaint is that Lappin will continue to end at Ward ST and not connect thru to the park. From Google Maps, the bit of pavement extending west of Ward is actually private property, it’s the parking lot for a commercial building. I don’t know if anyone promised to acquire that land to add an access from Lappin, but it’s possible that this has falllen through. If so, it would possibly be up to the City, not ML, to expropriate the land if the connection were desired.

- Paul
 
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ProjectEnd said:
There is no redevelopment happening here. It's E / Employment and unless folks want to take on OPA 231, it's just not worth the risk.

Some of it is Ubisoft parking, the remainder is parking for the tenants of 80 Ward.

The condo won't want that. In addition, there's a 3-4m grade change from the west property line of 812 & 816 Lansdowne to track level.

It's not "just for a sliver of private parking" - there's the legality of how 'The City and Metrolinx" would go about doing this. First, the owner would have to agree to lose an income stream (no parking income) and the convenience of their tenants losing on-site parking. Then, they'd need to rezone the land to reduce the required parking (potentially not an issue as they City is moving towards eliminating parking altogether). Then, most complicatedly, you'd need to encumber the property with an access agreement and either a physical conveyance or an easement permitting public access. Then, if the space were shared between cars and pedestrians (if one still wanted to retain some parking), they'd need to convince their insurer that it's a good idea to have folks walking through their parking lot to get to a park on the other side of the tracks. At the end of the day, kids and cars [rightly] don't mix.

At the end of the day, it was stupid of Metrolinx to show it as a connection because it's clearly private property.

I'd love for you to be correct, but for the reasons noted above, I'm doubtful that's the case.
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crs1026 said:
The most recent presentation on the ML website shows a connection at Lappin/Antler.

Is there any evidence of a change in that ?

- Paul

PS - perhaps the complaint is that Lappin will continue to end at Ward ST and not connect thru to the park. From Google Maps, the bit of pavement extending west of Ward is actually private property, it’s the parking lot for a commercial building. I don’t know if anyone promised to acquire that land to add an access from Lappin, but it’s possible that this has falllen through. If so, it would possibly be up to the City, not ML, to expropriate the land if the connection were desired.

- Paul
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Hey Paul,

As I'd laid out in the post above, this was just stupid Metrolinx laziness / oversight. 80 Ward is private property and there's almost no chance that the owners' would agree to sever / expropriate its land. It is very frustrating as it did get folks' hopes up, but at the end of the day it's just not happening (at this point, at least).

Also, the presentation is pretty careful to note that there isn't a connection to Lappin, just one to Antler, hence the half-circle:

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Some photos from this morning, showing the sound walls going up along the northern berm, as seen from Davenport Village:
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That's going to feel like walking in a deep canyon when it becomes a trail. Hell of a location for graffiti/murals too.
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Also, in this photo you can see three disconnected bridge segments. Back to front: 1) The quickly growing section creeping northbound, 2) Bridge Above Bridge Above Dupont, 3) The steel span over CP tracks, connected to the northern berm.
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