Map of construction area
There is some unusual construction going on at the Forks of the Don. The road that leads to the western Taylor Creek Park parking lot is closed for the month of April. The reason for this is that the road underneath the Don Valley Parkway needs to be lowered to allow for some heavy machinery to access the construction site where they will dig a tunnel for a sewer project.
This particular project is meant to create a bypass around a damaged sewer pipe 60m below the ground that was discovered to be cracked. This pipe carries the sewage for 1/3 of Toronto's residents. If the crack becomes critical and the sewer fails, all the sewage would be diverted into the Don River - a manmade disaster for the Don and the harbour where the polluted water would end up. So repairing the sewer is a critical task. The project involves boring a bypass tunnel around the cracked section. Once the bypass is built the sewage can be rerouted and the damaged section can be drained for inspection. It is hoped that when it is dry it can be repaired.
This is part of a larger project to twin the sewer pipe because right now there is no alternative to the single pipe in use now. It was built in 1958 and it is close to capacity. The entire project (still unfunded) is expected to take another 5-10 years to complete.
Looking east underneath DVP bridge. The Elevated Wetland solar panel tower is on the left.
Looking west underneath bridge. The road has been lowered by about 1.5m.
Construction staging area at south end of parking lot
5 comments:
Thanks for the update, I ride by there often and was wondering why the construction.
I assume the road will be repaved properly afterwards - it needed attention. It would also be great if 'they' put in a better separated cycle path, many cars drive far too fast there as ther are lots of cyclists.
I rode through there today. The temporary pedestrian walkway is now on the northeast side of the road. It also looks like they're building a dedicated path on the southwest side, which I suppose is for pedestrians and/or cyclists. Overall, when it's finished, it'll be a definite improvement over the pot-holed road that was there before.
As of May 7, 2010, the road is now open.
I was there tonight and the equipment they have in place for the digging is very impressive.
I was pleased to see the improvements for cyclists and pedestrians as it's been years since I was there last but I remembered how treacherous it was.
Post a Comment