The Fate Of Gardner Expressway

No matter what it is done it is going to be expensive and when is all said and done will it decrease gridlock? I don't think so but it will be interesting to see what Pittfield and Miller recommend. I wonder if we could have saved a few dollars if the report had been released two years ago?

$2B to tear down Gardiner

Report outlines three main options for highway

By ROB GRANATSTEIN, CITY HALL BUREAU

The long-awaited $1-million report on what to do with the Gardiner Expressway will be made public today and detail four options for the highway.

There are three key options.

The most expensive option is to knock down the Gardiner and replace it with a tunnel underneath Lake Shore Blvd. for about $2 billion.

Another option is to take down the highway from Yonge St. or Spadina Ave. to the Don Valley Parkway and widen Lake Shore Blvd. That would leave it up where the bulk of the traffic and condos are, but remove it where the new East Bayfront and West Don Lands neighbourhoods are to be built.

That would cost in the range of $600 million.

Another option is to do nothing but maintenance. That would see the Gardiner Expressway undergo a heavy overhaul of its decks, especially from the Don Valley Parkway west into downtown.

The cost of that, plus maintaining the Gardiner for the next 50 years, would also be in the hundreds of millions of dollars -- similar to the cost of taking down the eastern portion of the highway, the report finds.

The numbers are said to be already out of date as the report sat behind closed doors for two years.

Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong fought to get the report made public and is eager to see it before the election.

"This is a key element of the waterfront," he said. "I'm also interested to see what we spent $1 million on."

Mayor David Miller voted against releasing the report, saying without detailing how to finance the options, it makes no sense to debate the issue.

Councillor Jane Pitfield, a mayoral candidate, hopes to make the future of the Gardiner a key election issue.

In the late 1990s, the city tore down 1.4 km of the Gardiner from the Don River to Leslie St. The cost to tear it down and maintain the roads left behind was $34 million. The cost to do necessary improvements was estimated at $48 million.