Toronto Union Station Revitalization | ?m | ?s | City of Toronto | NORR

[EnviroTO]

The original south end will be rebuilt to original design. I have photo's of those ends some where that I shot early this year and will post them when I have time as well find them in the 20,000+ I shot to date.

Excellent. The GO website hasn't been too good for showing the full vision. The city's presentations are pretty good an conveying their goal but other than some nice renderings of the glass atrium there is not a lot of detail available on the GO website.

There are plans for GO to put 2 trains on some of the longer tracks down the road and they will be cover at each end. At the same time, a new tunnel has to be built under that area for access.

That is a great way to add capacity during rush hour. Put the rush hour trains two per track on the long tracks and have through service on the short tracks. The rail yards located on opposite sides of the station would support that as well.

There is no plans to widen or move tracks in the shed.

I wonder why they skipped platform numbers 22 and 23 then. I wonder who came up with the idea to have the subway as platform 1 and 2, skip 22 and 23, and reserve nothing for other potential TTC platforms.

Everything gets rebuilt 100% top down. The round concrete columns are getting rebuilt with a steel column been use as the main support and encase in concrete to match what there today.

At first I thought you meant the columns on Front Street and I was afraid that they would even consider it. Then I reailized you probably mean the ones under the tracks in the councourse.

Park Canada is calling the shots as to What GO and the City can do to this station and that why some scale back is taking place for expansion.

Scaling back?

 

[MisterF]

there was an article in today's Sun that described the new train shed roof as being a glass box, suspended over the tracks on stilts like OCAD...there was a small rendering, but I cant find anything online....

I haven't been following this too closely....is this news?

Here are some renderings from GO Transit:

 

[Platform 27]

So, 40 days after EnviroTO posted this:

What happened?? The tender results came out showing Aecon had the lowest bid and no annoucement has happened since. There is no indication a contract has been signed yet and this is something that would get printed in a news release since it would significantly impact Aecon and general public interest. Uuugh. This was supposed to get under construction by July based on projections in the spring but now it is mid-September.

...we get this...

Aecon awarded $196 million contract for Union Station Platform Renewal

TORONTO, Oct. 30 /CNW/ - Aecon Group Inc. (TSX: ARE) announced today that its Buildings Division has been awarded a contract by GO Transit, a division of Metrolinx for the $196 million refurbishment of the Union Station train shed.

Under the contract, Aecon will refurbish Union Station's 360,000 square foot train shed covering 13 tracks and 23 platforms; replacing the existing roof with new a new steel roof and a glass atrium that reaches 50 feet above the platform level. Fifty new stair access points and nine new passenger elevators will be built to help move passengers from the existing concourse level to the newly-refurbished platforms.

The project also involves the removal and repair of approximately 4,200 metres of existing track beds, as well as electrical and mechanical work including communication systems, signals, a new roof drainage system, and a snow melting system.

The existing station is subject to a Heritage Easement administered by Parks Canada and will therefore undergo preservation and restoration to reinstate it to its original condition wherever possible. The refurbishment will be completed in eleven stages with each stage involving the closure of two tracks and two platforms. The project is scheduled for completion in November of 2014.

"Aecon's unique ability to bring expertise to all aspects of the construction process allows us to deliver seamless services for such multi-faceted projects," said Frank Ross, President, Aecon Buildings. "We look forward to working with Metrolinx on this landmark project."

Aecon Group Inc. is Canada's largest, publicly traded construction and infrastructure development company. Aecon and its subsidiaries provide services to private and public sector clients throughout Canada and on a selected basis internationally. Aecon is pleased to be recognized as one of the 10 Best Employers in Canada as published by Report on Business Magazine.

The information in this news release includes certain forward-looking statements. These statements are based upon assumptions that are subject to significant risks and uncertainties which are generally described in Section 3.2 "Risk Factors" in Aecon's Annual Information Form dated March 30, 2009 available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although Aecon believes that the expectations reflected in forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that the expectations f any forward-looking statements will prove to be correct.

For further information: Mitch Patten, Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs, Aecon Group Inc., (416) 297-2615, aecon@aecon.com, www.aecon.com

 

[Woodbridge_Heights]

Saw some scaffolding along the East side of the building. Has construction already started?

 

[Swarley]

Was it the Bay teamway construction? That's been ongoing for a little while...

 

[Woodbridge_Heights]

Well this is more towards the North - East corner of the building where the moat is. It might be for the teamway construction but it looked new to me.

 

[Platform 27]

Passed by earlier tonight and it's honestly a bit of a mystery to me.

As Woodbridge Heights was saying, the scaffolding's against the northern half of the station building's east façade (from just north of the Bay St. side door into the GO concourse up to and including where the moat meets the ugly fabric "tent" over the PATH entrance.)

This is quite separate from the (rather stalled-looking) work on the teamway and well clear of the trainshed. As of tonight, the scaffolding extended vertically so it wasn't much higher than "bridge" from Front Street to the east wing entrance, but there could be more layers to come.

At a guess, it might be intended for some kind of cleaning/repair of the external stonework, or potentially reno work connected with Scotiabank leaving their offices in the east wing. Either of those potential jobs would strike me as falling under City of Toronto tenders rather than GO's, and AFAIK the City hasn't issued any of those yet.

 

[khris]

Aren't they almost finished the first bridge? Maybe they're about to start on the second one.

 

[Platform 27]

Aren't they almost finished the first bridge? Maybe they're about to start on the second one.

Ah. Hadn't considered that. Certainly passes the Occam test.

The sheer volume of scaffolding well to the south of the bridge seems sort of overkill, but I'm not a contractor.

 

[DSC]

Aren't they almost finished the first bridge? Maybe they're about to start on the second one.

I agree with you, the western half of the main 'bridge' is almost done (they were laying the top pavers last week) and the wooden fence has been replaced by a wire one. They are going to start on the eastern half (and, I guess, reuse the wooden fence) any day now.

 

[Jonny5]

At a guess, it might be intended for some kind of cleaning/repair of the external stonework, or potentially reno work connected with Scotiabank leaving their offices in the east wing. Either of those potential jobs would strike me as falling under City of Toronto tenders rather than GO's, and AFAIK the City hasn't issued any of those yet.

Someone has been up in a cherry picker all morning working on the east wall, just below the roof. I can't make out what he's doing though.

 

[Platform 27]

Just noticed that today's Pic of the Day is wyliepoon's shot from Tuesday night of the new south plaza entrance into Union Station, beside the Telus Tower.

It looks surprisingly close to completion, at least to my eye. I'm contorting my head trying to figure out where those doors would open into under the trainshed, and then how you'd connect to the rest of the station, though. This map suggests you'd wind up somewhere in the darkest formica-est depths of Via-land, at least until the innards get gutted sometime in the near future.

 

[drum118]

The new link is opening this month

 

[whatever]

I don't think the doors really open into the trainshed. I'm pretty sure that's a relatively shallow corridor that actually leads east to the south end of that ridiculous Ford display area.

 

[hkric88]

I don't think the doors really open into the trainshed. I'm pretty sure that's a relatively shallow corridor that actually leads east to the south end of that ridiculous Ford display area.

That would be excruciatingly unfortunate; yet very Toronto.