Toronto TYSSE: York University Station | ?m | 1s | TTC | Foster + Partners

well it is behind schedule, but thats because of the death not because of this. York U has been problems since day 1 on this project, and ironically it is probably the most important station on the line.
 
The construction pit is flooded, likely from rain or groundwater collecting while the site has sat inactive. There is no station yet to flood!

It should be drained out reasonably quickly.
 
Ellis Don is in the hizzizz at York U. There are 3 trucks pumping away. At this rate, I have to say it looks like it's gonna take some time.
Would it? Looking at 407 Station draft plans, the station is about 180 metres long and 20 metres wide. If the water is a foot deep you've got about 1,100 m³ of water.

The truck doesn't look particularly big. What, about 4,000 USG? So about 15 m³. About 75 truckloads. Or 25 loads per each of the 3 trucks. Presumably they can pump at about 400 USGPM (probably more, but here's a lot of lift required). So 10 minutes to fill. not sure where they are taking it to, but if they could do a load an hour, they can dry it out in 25 hours. Three 8-hour days. Faster if less than a foot of water. Slower if more. Presumably they've got a couple of weeks still to worry about this.

I don't see an issue here.
 
It's very hard to get a sense of the depth because I was like 5 stories above the site and the pit must be another 3-4 stories deep and it's just a big pit....but there is no way that's only one foot deep. Is it 10 feet? 4 feet? 15 feet? I really can't say without a wee person or something else down there to offer some scale but I think it's in the 5-10 range, if I had to guess. Even if it's only 5 feet, that takes your estimate up to 15 8-hour days, which is three weeks (unless they're going overtime, which I'd doubt, but who knows?)..

Anyway, I'm impressed with the math you did! (And, yeah, I'm curious where the heck they put the water....I can't really imagine, actually.) I don't think it's an "issue" in terms of delaying the construction in any significant way, it's just interesting to watch.
 
It's very hard to get a sense of the depth because I was like 5 stories above the site and the pit must be another 3-4 stories deep and it's just a big pit....but there is no way that's only one foot deep. Is it 10 feet? 4 feet? 15 feet? I really can't say without a wee person or something else down there to offer some scale but I think it's in the 5-10 range, if I had to guess. Even if it's only 5 feet, that takes your estimate up to 15 8-hour days, which is three weeks (unless they're going overtime, which I'd doubt, but who knows?).
I'd be surprised if they didn't pump 24/7. But even 3 weeks doesn't seem like a terrible amount of time. Presumably they have a date when they were planning to start work in the pit. They simply have to schedule to start pumping in advance, so it's completed in time.

5 feet deep? How deep is the bottom of the floor above the floor of the tunnels leading into the station. That's the maximum depth ... I'd be surprised if it's 5 feet.
 
I walked by the York U station and today - now, it was a bit hard to tell from my angle so I'll try to get an aerial view next week - but what it looked like was that they weren't able to pump out all the water before it froze.

It's only been below freezing for a few days so if, as it appeared, there was ice along the bottom of the box, I guess it means the water that's left isn't that deep. But that still must be an obstacle going forward, whether they do other stuff around it or find a way to melt and pump it

I feel like the TTC has been rather casual about the whole thing. I saw the flooding back around May and it was only when a councillor saw it a month or two ago that the media got a hold of it and things started moving forward. Might have been too late to avoid more delays, but we'll see.
 
Here's how York U station is looking today. There is some ice, but it's really just a glorified puddle at the bottom of the pit.

Most of Ellis Don's work right now seems to be on the bridges (there's some traffic re-routing at at York, which is rather annoying.)

2013-12-04 09.48.32 (480x360).jpg
 

Attachments

  • 2013-12-04 09.48.32 (480x360).jpg
    2013-12-04 09.48.32 (480x360).jpg
    24 KB · Views: 972
its not going to be ready for the pan ams, its been delayed a year because of the death.
It was never scheduled to be ready for the Pan Am games. The opening was late 2015 when they started construction, and when the Pan Am games bid was done. If you look at the bid book for the Pan Am games, not only is there no mention of this extension being open for the games - there were no events planned at York.

The decision to move events to York was done 100% in recognition that there would be no subway.
 
Ellis Don now has a crane - maybe 10 storeys tall - set up at the York U station site.
There's still water and ice at the bottom. Looks like they are using a bobcat to break up the chunks of ice and the crane is hauling them out. But they're getting there...
 
Last edited:
As promised, here's a view of the York U construction from higher up in Kaneff. It's a big site but there's a second crane and a pumping trunk off to the right.
20140317_101145 (800x600).jpg
 

Attachments

  • 20140317_101145 (800x600).jpg
    20140317_101145 (800x600).jpg
    74 KB · Views: 910
Last edited:

Back
Top