Access road under construction
If you've passed by the mouth of Taylor-Massey Creek recently you will have noticed a considerable amount of construction activity. In addition to the sewer project that is taking up part of the parking lot in Taylor Creek Park there is also another related project occurring on the north side of the creek. Toronto Water is busy blazing a new road up the East Don (see map). The purpose of this road is to allow them to access to maintenance wells so that they can access a sewer that runs through the East Don ravine. The sewer was built in the 1960s when the city was more concerned about building things than about natural spaces.
The sewer which is now about 50 years old requires some monitoring and possible maintenance. In order to inspect the sewer they need to lower a camera mounted on a robot into the sewer so they can look inside. The monitoring equipment and the robot are quite substantial thus a road is required to get it to the access grates.
The road is following the path of an old construction road laid down by the TRCA in 1999 so that they could do some slope remediation. The new road will go past the slope and extend another 400m east alongside the river.
Eventually the road will be used by Parks to establish a trail through the Charles Sauriol Preserve that will link up with parks further north such as Milne Hollow and Moccasin Trail.
Restored part of old construction road. New armour stone is on right, river is on the left
Another section showing riprap lining bank
Some of the construction vehicles parked in the staging area just north of Taylor-Massey Creek
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