Crews Begin Final Leg of Tunneling for Eglinton Crosstown West Extension
Written by Jennifer McLawhorn, Managing Editor
Construction is underway as crews start digging the tunnels connecting the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension to the western end of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT (to be known as Line 5 Eglinton when it opens) at Mount Dennis Station.
Image and caption courtesy of Metrolinx
TORONTO - Crews have begun digging the tunnels to connect the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension to the Eglinton Crosstown LRT at Mount Dennis Station.
According to Metrolinx, Line 5 Eglinton (Eglinton Crosstown LRT) will be an “expansive east-west rapid transit line for the Greater Toronto Area (GTA)” that will go from Scarborough to Mississauga and include 7 new stations. Strabag Inc. was awarded the design-build contract to build the second underground segment of the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension.
Crews are using a sequential excavation method to build the 500-meter twin tunnels, where the proposed area to be tunneled is “divided into small sections and excavated in sequence.” During this process, crews spray concrete onto the tunnel walls as sections are excavated, typically one to two meters a day. This reinforces the exposed walls.
Previously, RT&S has reported on Renny and Rexy, two tunnel boring machines (TBM) that were used to excavate the western section of the line for a total of 6.3 kilometers. These two machines spent two years digging out tunnels from Renforth Drive to Scarlett Road.
