Toronto Lower Don Lands Redevelopment | ?m | ?s | Waterfront Toronto

hawc said:
Lakeshore Blvd east of Don running over to Carlaw is really weird.

The eastbound lanes sit nearly two feet higher than the westbound lanes.

I know the westbound lanes are still unfinished, but seem strange that they would be increased in height that much when they are.

Anyway, I'm sure it'll all sort itself out.

Hopefully when it's done they'll be only one car lane in each direction and all the other space will be trees, bike lanes, CAFETO tables and maybe Word on the Street. Down with cars!!! Am I right? ;)
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That area is is in the flood zone and what I have seen first hand, the eastbound lanes are at the same level as before unless I am looking at it wrong. Where it does rise is as you near the Don Roadway since the Don Roadway to the south will be higher by a meter if I remember correctly and stand to be corrected on it to help to deal with flooding of the area to the east of it. Look back at my photos for the Lake Shore to see how the eastbound lanes was being built.

The new bridge over the Don is slightly higher and longer than before. There is more clearances with the new bridge over the old one by being higher, but also the the beams are thinner to give more space for the water to flow under it for an 100 year event compare what was there before. The same will happen for the new westbound bridge as well the removal of the RR bridge

The new cycle path will be where the RR tracks were or close to it on the north side.
 
drum118 said:
That area is is in the flood zone and what I have seen first hand, the eastbound lanes are at the same level as before unless I am looking at it wrong. Where it does rise is as you near the Don Roadway since the Don Roadway to the south will be higher by a meter if I remember correctly and stand to be corrected on it to help to deal with flooding of the area to the east of it. Look back at my photos for the Lake Shore to see how the eastbound lanes was being built.

The new bridge over the Don is slightly higher and longer than before. There is more clearances with the new bridge over the old one by being higher, but also the the beams are thinner to give more space for the water to flow under it for an 100 year event compare what was there before. The same will happen for the new westbound bridge as well the removal of the RR bridge

The new cycle path will be where the RR tracks were or close to it on the north side.
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Makes complete sense !
 
Rocky the Rock Ripper announced: "Excavation by the west plug is complete! Now we’re putting in the riverbanks and river bottom materials so we can be ready to flood it next year." For an excavator he takes great photos :->

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December 24th.

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I must admit, Villiers St is so disgusting and muddy from the air, I kept mistaking it for an unpaved Commissioners St. Then I'd look down at the Orange Crush bridge with its newly paved roads and go, "Oh right, that's Commissioners. What's this then? Villiers?! Good God!"
 
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hawc said:
December 24th.

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I must admit, Villiers St is so disgusting and muddy from the air, I kept mistaking it for an unpaved Commissioners St. Then I'd look down at the Orange Crush bridge with its newly paved roads and go, "Oh right, that's Commissioners. What's this then? Villiers?! Good God!"
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Sorry I’ve been out of the loop - is the freight rail spur indeed a goner? I know Toronto wanted it gone, and there was pushback. Unsure of the result, but your pictures seem to suggest that the track has gone away.
 
SaugeenJunction said:
Sorry I’ve been out of the loop - is the freight rail spur indeed a goner? I know Toronto wanted it gone, and there was pushback. Unsure of the result, but your pictures seem to suggest that the track has gone away.
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GONE! They dug up part of it in median of Lake Shore just east of Carlaw too.
 
DSC said:
GONE! They dug up part of it in median of Lake Shore just east of Carlaw too.
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If the rail spur is gone, does that mean this little railway bridge (green circle) over which the rail spur ran is also being removed? Or will it be rebuilt and repurposed for pedestrians/cyclists?

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hawc said:
If the rail spur is gone, does that mean this little railway bridge (green circle) over which the rail spur ran is also being removed? Or will it be rebuilt and repurposed for pedestrians/cyclists?

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It will be remove along with the westbound bridge as the channel is to be widen along the lines of the new eastbound bridge. The new opening should be double the current length of the existing RR bridge and you can see long the new eastbound bridge is in the photo.

We forget how goods can be move by rail, but RR fail to moved them faster than trucking to the point RR wasn't an option anymore. The cost of the land here has driven industries out of the area as well the type of industries that used to get goods shipped by rail. Toronto is not the only place to see this as there are many places in NA and Europe where industry's has left the waterfront and other areas.
 
drum118 said:
It will be remove along with the westbound bridge as the channel is to be widen along the lines of the new eastbound bridge. The new opening should be double the current length of the existing RR bridge and you can see long the new eastbound bridge is in the photo.

We forget how goods can be move by rail, but RR fail to moved them faster than trucking to the point RR wasn't an option anymore. The cost of the land here has driven industries out of the area as well the type of industries that used to get goods shipped by rail. Toronto is not the only place to see this as there are many places in NA and Europe where industry's has left the waterfront and other areas.
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Drum: Are you sure the old rail spur bridge is being removed? I had heard 'from a generally reliable source' that it was being retained and lengthened as a replacement for the former cycling bridge (that HAS been removed) linking the Lower Don Trail with the bike path on north side of Lake Shore.
 
hawc said:
Ah very interesting. Makes sense. And sorry, remind me again what's this area going to be repurposed for? Will a whole bunch of condos be squeezed in here too, or will it be turned into a park because it's flood land?

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Some questions can be answered quite easily with a Google search... when this will happen now that the Gardiner is to be owned and managed by the Province is quite another question!

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See: https://www.toronto.ca/services-pay...egy/gardiner-expressway-east-reconfiguration/
 
That's more likely to happen with the province in control. The city was headed in the direction of scrapping the DVP/Gardiner connection
 
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