Ontario Line Construction Progress; Don Valley Crossing and West Don Crossing
Written by Jennifer McLawhorn, Managing Editor
The tunnel portal at Minton Place, where Ontario Line trains will emerge from underground onto the Don Valley Crossing.
Image and caption courtesy of the Ontario Government
TORONTO - Construction has begun on two new bridges located in the northern segment of the Ontario Line, according to a release from Metrolinx.
The release says these bridges will carry trains on the Ontario Line across Don Valley and through the Thorncliffe and Flemingdon Park neighborhoods. The Line will exit a tunnel on the east side of Don Valley at Minton Place and travel over the valley on the new Don Valley Crossing and West Crossing bridges.
The future Don Valley Crossing will connect an underground part of the line beneath Pape Avenue to an elevated guideway. It will then run through Thorncliffe Park. The bridge will be 504 meters long and 38 meters tall and will be the first elevated crossing of the area since the Leaside Bridge, which was built in 1927.
The West Don Crossing will be 411 meters long and 36 meters tall and will connect elevated sections between Thorncliffe Park and Flemingdon Park. According to the release, crews will use a “balanced cantilever method to build both bridges, avoiding the need for large sections of scaffolding underneath.” Five long spans will be between support columns, so the bridges will have a smaller footprint during construction.
The Ontario government states once these bridges are completed, they will bring 230,000 people within walking distance of public transit. Premier Doug Ford said, “The Ontario Line is at the center of our government’s nearly $70 billion plan to expand public transit across the province and today’s announcement shows we are getting it done. . . This transformational project is going to cut commute times for hundreds of thousands of riders every day, connecting to transit services from across the region and creating new economic opportunities all along the line.”
As for the progress occurred elsewhere on the Ontario Line, crews have begun getting ready for construction on a tunnel launch shaft at Exhibition Station and have started major construction at downtown station sites, including King-Bathurst, Queen-Spadina, and Moss Park. The Ontario government states that after construction starts at these stations, “crews will soon start excavating Corktown and Osgoode stations. Corktown Station will give thousands of riders access to the nearby Distillery District while the Ontario Line Osgoode Station will link directly to the TTC’s Line 1 (Yonge-University) and give more than 12,000 daily rush-hour commuters a new, vital interchange connection that will help reduce crowding at Union Station by 14 percent.” Once complete, the Line will have 15 stations that run from Exhibition Place and connect to the Eglinton Crosstown LRT at Don Mills Road.
“People need more public transit options to travel around our city. The Ontario Line will help generations of Torontonians get to work, school or run errands around Toronto – without having to drive,” said Olivia Chow, Mayor of Toronto. “It’s a historic investment and I’m pleased that it is well underway. Working together, we can build a more convenient, reliable, affordable and safe public transit system.”
