The Gardiner Expressway - Keep it or nuke it?

[james t kirk]

Last week a report was released by the Toronto Waterfront Redevelopment Corporation (Who?) that recommended that part of the elevated portion of the Gardiner Expressway be demolished from roughly Spadina to the DVP.

The report recommended that the elevated portion be replaced with a "great road" whatever the hell that is. Essentially, a ten lane road with a boulevard down the middle and development on either side of the road way.

The report stated that the cost would be 785 million dollars and construction and engineering would take approximately 10 years.

On the cover of the national post the other day they had a photo of a forlorn bent under the Gardiner Expressway taken in February, verses an artist's conceptual drawing of a nice 10 lane roadway in June with 5 cars on it and pedestrians walking down the street.

I have never seen a bigger pile of steaming bullshit in my life.

That picture needs to be ammended to show bumper to bumper traffic with people running for their lives to cross that road and avoiding idiots who will run the reds.

I was all for them tearing down the protion of the gardiner from the DVP to Coxwell as this was never even close to being utilized. It was originally intended to be the Scarborough Expressway take off from and to the Gardiner (originally called the Lakeshore Expressway by the way). The Scarborough Expressway was to run from the DVP along part of Kingston Road through the Beaches, then into the Ontario Hydro Corridor. It was never built and never will be built and that's a good thing.

The Spadina Expressway was to take off from the Gardiner around Spadina (hence why you have those really wide lanes there) and go north on Spadina in cut (sort of like that Autoroute Metropolitan?) in Montreal. The Spadina was to cut right through the Annex and several of Toronto's other nicer neighbourhoods right to the 401. The Allan was the only portion of the Spadina that go built and the Spadina was killed off (thank god)

I do not believe that this city needs any more expressways whatsoever.

However, I think that the recommendation to remove the Gardiner Expressway and replace it with an at grade road is the dumbest thing I have ever read in my life.

I would be all for replacing the Gardiner with a Tunnel under the lake from Stachan to the DVP, but anything else is just plain stoo-pid. The Gardiner as is is a free flow roadway with no stops, no pedestrians and it is bumper to bumper every day of every week from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

The very notion that making an at grade road would only add 4 minutes to one's trip down the Gardiner is akin to "peace in our time".

Personally, I'd love to see Toronto Transportation add temporary stop lights at all the major intersections along the Gardiner just to see the effects. You'd have traffic backed up to the 401 along the DVP and the Ford plant in the west.

This report was commissioned by the Toronto Waterfront Redevelopment Agency (Who?). They have a vested interest in the redevelopment of the Railway lands adjacent to Skydome (Robert Fung, and his Hong Kong buddies) and the Portlands. In the case of the Skydome area, I find it most interesting that this report would recommend keeping the elevated portion of the Gardiner up and running to - wait for it - Spadina.

Hmmm, I wonder if they are trying to shift the core of Toronto westwards to THEIR properties and developments.

Anyway, as I said, I am all for the tunnel option, but anything else is just rediculous.

BTW, the Gardiner will be closed the weekend of October 28 for a little maintenance. Enjoy the traffic grid lock in the rest of the city.

[highthief]

It's gotta be fixed. Not sure if burying it or rebuilding it is the best choice, but something has to happen, to it and the DVP.

[Charlatan]

I am all for burying the Gardiner. I am not sure I understand the idea of tearing it down and replacing it with grade level roads. I do get this would include upgrades and widenings of Adelaide and Richmond (where they meet the DVP) as well as the creation of the Front Street extention. This is done in an effort to reduce the pressure on the Lakeshore traffic.

I also understand the desire to tear down the Gardiner for asthetic reasons -- it blocks our connection to the lake and is an eye sore in general (though that point is moot when you consider the curtain of condos we currently have on the lakefront).

I also understand that long term, maintenance on the Gardiner is high. Salt and concrete do not mix well.

Burying it would be really expensive. It won't happen without Federal and Provincial support. Period.


I've thought for some time that it is better to make a purse out of a sow's ear. If we are concerned about how the Gardiner affects our relationship to the waterfront then let's look at figuring out how to better use and beautify the underside.

Work on shifting the traffic of Lakeshore Blvd. (the road that runs beneath the Gardiner) onto other roads. Repurpose those roads into a mix of green space and pedestrian malls in key areas that would connect the lakeshore to the rest of the city.


On top of all of this, there needs to be more and better spent money on public transit. It has to be cheaper and more efficient to take the TTC than it is to park downtown. Looking at public transit in places like Singapore and London, England I can't help but wish we had similarly efficient and widespread systems in Toronto.

[james t kirk]

The thing about the Gardiner is is that it does "work"

It does what it's supposed to do at really a minimum of cost. They supposedly spend about 12 million a year on it maintenance, which is peanuts really. Compared to the elevated expressways in Montreal, it's in positively great shape (believe it or not).

My take on this report last week is that it was commissioned by a group of business fat cats who WANT THAT LAND. I'm very surprised the media hasn't picked up on that fact.

They want to build condos and towers along that corridor. Simple as that.

If they were to build a tunnel from the CNE to the DVP, and make ALL OF the GARDINER CORRIDOR into a green belt, no development of any kind. No condos, no offices, no shops, no restaurants, no bullshit. Just trees, rocks, steams (un bury the existing ones even) with trails and nature, I'd be all for it.

But they won't.

They just want more cheap land to build their gawd awful box condos and make a few billion more.

Hypocrisy at the finest.

[fresnelly]

If you had asked me a couple of years ago, I would have said "Absolutely tear it down!", but now I'm cooler to the idea.

JTK is right on that simply replacing the Gardiner with a utopian roadway is ridiculous. All of the previous proposals that the Waterfront corporation put forward a few years ago (oh, to make my living as a civic planning consultant) were 100% contigent on a) the Front Street extension, and B) an unprecedented increase in Public transit spending and infrastructure.

Well, the Front St. extension, which I thought was reasonable, was shot down, and that massive public transit overhaul? Yeah right. It's so frustrating that between the city council and the provincial government, we can't get any momentum for long term projects. As soon as an election is on the horizon, all those bold visions go out the window. I'm still waiting for that Airport rail-link.

So for better or worse, I bet we're going to be stuck with the Gardiner for another 20 years. So what now?

Charlatan's right about the Wall of Condos. Toronto's classic skyline, anchored by the CN Tower, Royal York Hotel and all those stately Bank buildings, is steadily being hidden by bland choc-a-block condo towers. So even if we do remove the Gardiner, the city core is a long way from the waterfront.

What I propose is that we bring the city right up close to it, and squeeze that cut as much as possible.

Build towers right up against it with several closed in pedestrian crossways connecting them on several levels. Shoulder some large garden and tree terraces at Gardiner height alng the way. If you're going to have billboards and video screens advertising to drivers, we might as well go big. Think Blade Runner big. Down at street level, allow street vendors and small businesses to populate the bottoms of these. Improve the lighting, put in public art and work with the industrial setting to create kinetic urban environment that isn't a dead zone.

Above all, demand that all buildings presenting along that corridor must have bold and sophisticated designs. No more dull Taupe clad boxes. I drive the Gardiner every day, and with those new gleaming towers, not fifty feet away looming over you, it's not too hard to seeing this happening. This is the kind of plan on that private dovelopers can get on board with, doesn't depend on 20 years of Toronto centric Provincial governance, and circumvents Nimby obstruction.

For so many people, the view from the Gardiner is where they get their first impressions of the city. If we're going to lose the old face of the city, we'd better get busy creating a new one.

[Charlatan]

I think a combination of my idea and Fresnelly's would be awesome...

The key is to intensify the area. Make it so the Gardiner becomes just another building. Redesign key areas of the underside to provide attractive links to the waterfront.

Also cover over the raillands and beautify it... This would do a lot to link the city to water. The rail lines are much more divisive than the Gardiner when it comes down to it.

Just in case you don't know... you guys should check out www.spacing.ca. It's an excellent resource for Toronto urban planning issues.

[Aro23]

just imagine how the traffic jam would be if they were to get rid of the gardiner due to construction, and also the length of the construction would cause major traffic jam. yeah we're getting bumper to bumper traffic on rush hour but isn't it the same on every expressway around that time? if it's doing it's purpose they should just leave it the way it is

[Leto]

Originally Posted by Charlatan

I think a combination of my idea and Fresnelly's would be awesome...

The key is to intensify the area. Make it so the Gardiner becomes just another building. Redesign key areas of the underside to provide attractive links to the waterfront.

This is true. The incorporation of the parkway into the infrastructure of the city as an almost organic process should eleviate the need to tear down and put it underground. Picture, if you will, a tree trunk growing around a wire fence. The tree grows around and incorporates the fencing within itself.

The scenario that Charlatan paints is similar, where the Gardiner becomes incorporated into the structure of the city like it is another building. Improvements can be applied to it as it ages.

[Charlatan]

Look at this... just today one of the Spacing columnists is suggesting just what we are suggesting here: http://spacing.ca/wire/?p=1215

An immodest proposal for the Gardiner

The depressing thing about this election is that the voters are being told they’re not allowed to talk about city building. Setting aside Jane Pitfield’s hell-in-a-handcart rhetoric and the methane emanating from the $300,000-man Stephen LeDrew, David Miller has said we can’t debate highway tolls, congestion charges and the future of the Gardiner. Everyone’s forgotten about Union Station. Miller’s taking credit for a waterfront planning process that chugs along on its own steam. As for the island airport, the mayor will produce sound-bite outrage, but we all know that debate’s done and gone.

Rather than accepting a controversy-free election, I’d like to challenge the candidates to sink their teeth into one of the Gardiner proposals that gets no love from the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation nor ink from the media, yet represents a genuinely gutsy and immodest proposal with the potential to transform all those new lakefront development tracts into truly urban communities.

The so-called “Transformation” option, at its most basic, involves shifting Lakeshore Boulevard out from beneath the Gardiner and then eliminating several of the space-hogging on/off ramps. The insight at the heart of this plan, developed in 2002 by architects John van Nostrand and Calvin Brooks, is that barrier effect along the waterfront is due to the fact that the two roads are stacked, and thus form a kind of vehicular Berlin Wall. Under the plan — which, at an estimated $415 million, is the cheapest of the three Gardiner options — Lakeshore is turned into a normal six-lane road with no ceiling. But the cool part of this plan is that it frees up acres of publicly-owned space beneath the Gardiner, which can be put to new and interesting uses. This is infill at its grittiest.

Skeptical? Miller is, as are the waterfront planners. But they’d do well to check out what’s happened beneath the Westway, an elevated expressway that presses through the heart of north-west London. Since the 1980s, a not-for-profit trust has methodically reclaimed 23 acres of land under that expressway, establishing an amazing array of local amenities [photos above], including a skate park [photo below], a soccer pitch [photo top], a child care, complexes for offices and shops [photo below], as well as a range of other structures, such as artists studios and light industrial buildings. The trust is run by a coalition of north-end London organizations, and thus responds to the needs of a dense, diverse community. This is a terrific example of how city building initiatives can percolate up, rather than being imposed from on high by land-use planning exercises driven by developers, architects and engineers.

But let’s not forget about the money. Miller and Pitfield insist there’s no money for the Gardiner tear-down. Maybe they should consider this detail: the Westway Trust has generated some 300 million pounds of development over the years, a windfall that strongly suggests the City of Toronto could make the Transformation option pay for itself. No tolls. No casinos. No parking surtax. Rather, it’s about letting the city grow organically into all the nooks and crannies developers scoff at, but frequently turn out to be the most compelling urban spaces.

The TWRC’s humongous Gardiner study, released last week, said the Transformation option requires “significant” repair work on the Gardiner decks to make sure they don’t collapse on the buildings or parks proposed for their nether regions. But the TWRC’s cost estimates didn’t include the $12 million a year the city currently shells out for ongoing structural maintenance on the Gardiner, nor the projected revenues from re-developing all that freed-up land.

Toronto used to be really good at this sort of thing — reclaiming orphaned spaces and eschewing the big-buck mega-project for a more nuanced reading of how cities work. In other words, the Transformation option is perfectly calibrated to Toronto’s fiscally cautious but urban-minded political temperament. It won’t clog the roads or break the bank. Yet it will allow the East Bayfront to evolve into a real neighbourhood, with all the little odd-ball amenities diverse urban neighbourhoods need, but developers tend not to build.

In short, the Transformation option sounds like just the fix we should be talking about. And it seems to me that an election is the perfect moment to begin having that discussion.

[aberkok]

That's a really cool story. Thanks, Charlatan.

Seems what's needed now is some creativity. I agree with it. Why not work with what is already there? It's the cheapest and most environmentally sound option - so why not make something happen?

[Charlatan]

Here is another take on the issue of the Gardiner. It tackles the idea that real barrier is the train tracks and proposes that a new viaduct suspension flyover span the city instead. Make sure you click the link in the story to read the proposal put out by the designer behind this... he makes a lot of good points.

http://spacing.ca/wire/?p=1251

[james t kirk]

The Gardiner is closed this weekend.

It's traffic chaos out there right now. I was leaving my house in Bloor West to go to work (in Mister and Mississauga by the Airport) and thought I would go via the Queensway to grab some lunch on the way.

The Queensway was jammed going eastbound and I am thinking, "Holy Crap, what is up with that?"

Answer, oh yeah, they closed the Gardiner for the weekend....

[Scorps]

I don't live near the GTA anymore but when I have visited and stuff the Gardiner expressway seemed to be ok, but I though some of it was already ripped down?

[Charlatan]

They ripped down the eastern end. It served no purpose past the DVP.

Sorry, I should say, once the Scarborough Expressway was canceled, the elevated section just east of the DVP ceased to have a purpose other than to look ugly.

[Mauser]

The Gardner needs to go underground or something, it's an eyesore, and replaceing it with a new elevated section probably won't make the area look any better.

Either way it should happen soon than later since I've seen some of the chunks that have fallen off.

[Scorps]

Originally Posted by Charlatan

They ripped down the eastern end. It served no purpose past the DVP.

Sorry, I should say, once the Scarborough Expressway was canceled, the elevated section just east of the DVP ceased to have a purpose other than to look ugly.

Ya thats the part im thinking of.

[billyeggs]

Why do they have to close it for entire weekends at a time? I have visited toronto many times, and am always shocked at this practice. Everywhere else in the world I have been seems to be able to "make do" with a lane or two closed at a time, or a closure from like midnight to 5am. Whats up!?

[james t kirk]

Originally Posted by billyeggs

Why do they have to close it for entire weekends at a time? I have visited toronto many times, and am always shocked at this practice. Everywhere else in the world I have been seems to be able to "make do" with a lane or two closed at a time, or a closure from like midnight to 5am. Whats up!?

They close it on the weekend for maintenance because traffic volumes are significantly reduced.

The also do lane restrictions during the days and nights to carry out various less intensive forms of maintenance - changing guide rails, cleaning, etc.

The weekend closures are for paving and things like that that can only be done efficiently with a full closure.