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A relic from Eglinton Station's past days as the Yonge subway's original northern terminus, the station's earlier bus terminal has been slowly deteriorating since its replacement entered service to the immediate south in 2004. Having sat idle for over a decade at the corner of Eglinton and Duplex Avenues, the abandoned open-air terminal is now being demolished to make way for the future interchange of Metrolinx's Crosstown LRT with a revamped Line 1 station.
Demolition for the station began earlier this summer over on the other side of the Yonge-Eglinton intersection with the teardown of a Salvation Army Community Church located at 7 Eglinton Avenue East. Situated adjacent to the east extraction shaft for two of the Crosstown's tunnel boring machines, this site will be used as a staging and construction area until the project's completion, at which time a new Salvation Army church will be built here.
Back on the west side of Yonge, the bus terminal site is being cleared to make way for extraction of the west pair of tunnel boring machines which arrived at Duplex following a dig from Keele Street earlier this year. At the south end of the site, the bus bays themselves are now in the process of being demolished, with the five of them now half gone, and an excavator in the process of moving the remaining bits, one hydraulic-powered bite at a time.
Demolition activity is furthest along at the west end of the site along Duplex Avenue, where a former red brick and glass block structure used for bus repairs has been reduced to rubble. Beside it the westernmost bus bay (known as bay #10 while in operation), has been torn down, while the old northwest station entrance remains standing for the time being on Eglinton.
Once demolition activity is complete—expected for December—work will begin with a shallow excavation of the station's 130 metre x 20 metre footprint, followed by the insertion of steel piles for shoring around the perimeter. Bracing and tie-backs will then be installed to allow for a safe excavation. Following the completion of the shoring, the crew will be able to safely work below Eglinton to conduct the 20-metre-deep station box excavation. The entire shoring and decking process is expected to take a total of 16 months.
The front of the site will eventually be the main entrance for the Line 1 and Crosstown station, while a tower, possibly all office commercial space, possible mind use, would take the bulk of the remaining space. Planning for it and more in this larger block continues. Below, two images compare the existing conditions with a rendering of the future station entrance should a tower plan not be finalized before the station is set to open in 2021.
We will return with updates as work progresses on the Crosstown LRT. In the meanwhile, additional information about the line's stations can be found in the dataBase files, linked below. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the associated Forum threads, or leave a comment in the space provided at the bottom of this page.
