Saturday, August 11, 2007

Lower Don Trail Reopened



This morning I went down to see the new trail. What I saw was pretty neat. The new asphalt is so smooth, you really notice the transition between the old stuff and the new. I took a short video cycling along the new section of trail. I apologize for the jerky quality. Since I don't have a helmet cam, all I could do was hold my camera in front of me while I cycled slowly along the path.

Along side the trail is the widened river course already filled with river water. The TRCA has added some submerged boulders beside the concrete wall which should provide some habitat for any fish that inhabit the river. You can also see some corrugated metal sticking out of the water. This is part of the original dockwall. Over the next couple of months, workers will dismantle this structure and remove it.

The path is currently demarcated by orange fencing. This will be removed when they finish landscaping, some time this fall. Also there is a plan to add a viewing platform beside the river which should complement the future Don River Park when it is completed sometime in the next couple of years.

I cycled up to Queen St. and noted that the path is still blocked. I presume this will be removed later in the day.


View of bridge looking north. The new trail is on the left, the corrugated metal on the right marks the old edge of the river. This was where the old trail went under the bridge through a metal cage catwalk structure.



Submerged boulders will provide habitat for fish in the river

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, it is very nice to have the Don River trail reopened and I agree they did a very good job - even if thry were a bit slow. I notice that TRCA or the City has tidied up the path, cut the grass on the edsges and trimmed a few trees. There is still a problem with areas that pool water - several in the area just south of the Riverdale stairs - it would be good if someone could cut drainage channels towards the river so these can drain. I also noticed that between Riverdale and the Queen Street bridge there are 4 or 5 unused old telephone (?) poles beside the path. Maybe someone could cut them down? They do not seem to serve any purpose and could be run into.

Anonymous said...

Donwatcher,
On route up the DVP this morning (Aug-24th) I noticed someting that almost made me sick...Some Asshole has tagged, in giant letters, almost the entire retaining wall along the very recently opened bike trail south of the rail overpass. I saw several contractors arriving, not sure if they were there to continue their scheduled work or to paint over the tag. I didn't have time to photograph this for you, but then I thought that that would be terrible idea...no point to give this tag any more coverage then what has been said above...please have a look at it..contact who you know and lets try to get it removed as soon as possible...steal the tagger's glory before he can show it off..
Please keep up your great work. best regards ryan

Donwatcher said...

Yes, I noticed that myself. I was going to take a picture myself and comment on it but haven't had the time. It's a sad comment on our society that a blank wall attracts such activity.

As for the work crews, they are busy doing some landscaping as well as removing the remnants of the old dock wall sticking out of the water beside the new channel. I expect they'll be finished shortly.

Anonymous said...

The bike path looks great..minus the tags..which were still present as of last Saturday..your recent pics prove that they have been painted over..hopefully a deterrent to this thoughtless vanadalism that has been commonplace in many of our city's public spaces.
Like I said in the last posting..keep up the great work, I truly enjoy your postings...ryan