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With winter 2024 having finally truly arrived, and embracing the brisk cold, we return to catch up with work on the nascent landscape of Toronto’s Lower Don Lands. Here, Waterfront Toronto is orchestrating construction that will harmonize new urban development with ecological reclamation. The Port Lands, or Lower Don Lands, a 125-hectare area, is undergoing a gradual transformation into vibrant communities centred around the renaturalized mouth of the Don River. Eight months since our last update, the ambitious project has continued to make progress.
Reflecting the foresight of Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates' award-winning designs, this project is the culmination of Waterfront Toronto’s planning and public consultation efforts so far. With freshly paved trails and the elongation of the Lake Shore Bridge to cross a widened Don River, the work is carving a path for unobstructed river flow and reduced flood risk.
The image below shows the work on a pedestrian pathway and cycling trail on the west side of a realigned Cherry Street, with young trees set in newly laid soil, flanked by protective fencing. Concrete pouring for a gap in the new road was completed by mid-December. To the right, a red dump truck and a low-bed trailer are ready to haul construction equipment.
This street-level photograph at the intersection of Cherry Street and Lake Shore Boulevard East offers a candid view of the site's interface with public thoroughfares. A dump truck is depicted with its open-box bed angled up, deposit construction material such as asphalt. The intersection showcases recent alterations, with recently painted road markings and a pedestrian crosswalk.
An elevated eastern view captures the arm of a red mobile crane in action. Yellow excavators and earth-moving equipment work on soil being moved and contoured to create the engineered landscape required for the redevelopment. The proximity of the construction site to Lake Shore Boulevard underscores the urban context of the project and the necessity of meticulous planning and scheduling to minimize disruptions. The development of the realigned Cherry Street has progressed, with concrete curbs now delineating the new roadway, marking a transition from grading to concrete work.
Another distant aerial view shows a concrete pump, pairing with the red of the interior arches of the Cherry Street North Bridges, with its boom extended, pouring concrete for new supportive infrastructure.
Beneath the bridge, the groundwork for the riverbanks and river bottom can be observed, marking where the foundational elements for the flood protection measures are being put into place. This work is critical for protecting the new riverbed that will soon channel the waters of the Don River. Excavation of soil next to the “west plug", an in-ground structure east of the new bridge, is now complete, paving way for the flooding of the river course later this year.
This aerial photograph captures another of the new bridges in the Lower Don Lands — the Commissioners Street Bridge — in a state of near completion, its orange and white colouring standing out as a vibrant architectural feature amidst the earth tones of the construction site. The bridge's sleek design, with its flowing curves and elegant arches, spans over a newly formed waterway. Underneath, the riverbed has been armoured with large, irregularly shaped stones — a material known as riprap — designed to prevent erosion and manage the hydraulic forces once the new riverbed is flooded. The surrounding landscape offers a contrast of textures, from the new plantings to the smoother paths weaving through the site.
Looking northwest, the Lake Shore Bridge's expansion work continues, with the new half over the Don River now open to the public, allowing construction to commence on the northern side, which will be complemented by new pedestrian and cycle path bridge. Forms are in place for additional spans to extend the bridge westward, allowing to widening of the river's path to address the current bottleneck, ensuring the river flows with less obstruction.
With Waterfront Toronto's projected completion date set for the end of 2024, recent signage has denoted the opening of Commissioner Street from Don Roadway to the new Cherry Street, along with a permanent closure at Saulter Street. These are part of broader changes to traffic patterns, designed to accommodate the evolving layout of the Lower Don Lands area.
UrbanToronto will continue to follow progress on this development, but in the meantime, you can learn more about it from our Database file, linked below. If you'd like, you can join in on the conversation in the associated Project Forum thread or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.
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