Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Construction Proceeding Along Lower Don


Looking south through the new span. The new pathway is on the right, elevated above the spillway. On the far left you can see the river where the old path used to duck underneath the bridge.

I've received some new photos from the construction site. These were taken on Tuesday, June 5. Considerable progress has been made on the project since I last blogged about it in December, 2006. The new 4th span on the Kingston line (East-West) over the Don River and the DVP is now complete and the concrete forms are coming off the new pathway that passes underneath. Work is still proceeding on the tunnel underneath the Bala line (north-south) although this won't be opened until the berm has been built.

The path is slated to open sometime in July although final landscaping won't be complete until later this summer. It will certainly be a treat to begin cycling along this section again.

(click on any photo for a more detailed view)

Work on pedestrian and cycling underpass continues. This won't be ready for use until sometime in 2008 when the berm is completed and the new Don River Park is set to open.


Aerial view of the construction site. In the centre of the photo you can see the new span that was built for this project. The additional space underneath the bridge should allow it to cope with flooding on the scale of Hurricane Hazel.


Another aerial view looking north along the Don River. The vacant area in the left background will host a "flood protection landform" that will protect the soon-to-be-built West Don Lands community.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

From these photos it loos VERY unlikey the cycle path will reopen in early July and I bet it will be FAR later (late August??). Sigh....

Donwatcher said...

Like I said, they are aiming to open up the path even before they put the finishing touches on the landscaping.

My information is directly from the project manager. You can't get a better estimate than that.

Anonymous said...

I hope you - and the Project Manager - are right but these projects always take longer than estimated. Another example is the Cherry Beach cycle trail which remains blocked due to work being done "in April and May". Since the winter weather was far better than normal there is little excuse for them having missed the May deadline and I bet the re-opening will be LATE July, at the earliest. Cheers DAVID

Anonymous said...

As I suspected.... the TWRC website now says "late July" and as that is 6 weeks away I won't be surprised to see further 'slipage'.

Don River Bridge Extension and Bala Underpass


Toronto and Region Conservation (TRCA) is in the final stages of work on the extension of the CN Kingston Bridge to widen the Don River, as part of the flood protection for the West Don Lands. In addition to the bridge extension, TRCA is also constructing a pedestrian underpass that will link the new West Don Lands community to the existing trail system along the Don River and the waterfront.

Both of these projects are scheduled to be complete at the end of July; however the Bala Underpass will not be open until the completion of Don River Park.

To facilitate the construction of the bridge work, the Don Valley Trail has been closed between Queen Street and Lakeshore Blvd. since April 2006. The trail is scheduled to re-open to cyclists and pedestrians at the ending of July 2007