February 26, 2009

WILLIAM CONWAY / PROGRESS PHOTOGRAPHY

The $32-million realignment of Dufferin Street in Toronto’s west end will see the use of a cast-in-place concrete tunnel serving four lanes of north-south traffic.

Infrastructure

Toronto’s zig-zagging Dufferin Street ready for realignment

IAN HARVEY

correspondent

toronto

It may be a historic bend in the road, but there won’t be any tears of nostalgia when the $32-million realignment of Dufferin Street in Toronto’s west end is completed.

The maddening and abrupt southern end of the north-south street, which has a pair of hooks to make it a traffic bottleneck and is a headache for local residents, is about to undergo a massive transformation to straighten it out.

The plan is to realign the thoroughfare south of Queen Street West, where it currently terminates for traffic coming north. Motorists coming from the Gardiner Expressway and the Canadian National Exhibition ground – and all those Toronto F.C. fans heading home after the game – must make a series of zig zag turns on several streets to get back to Dufferin Street again.

The situation has been created through some unusual planning brought on by a railway right of way.

The grade separation dates to 1884 and eliminating it has been on the books since 1966. But the project never before made it to the top of the priority list.

As such, the configuration has been a thorn in the community’s side for decades. City structural engineer Jim Schaffner says connecting the stub of Dufferin Street on the north side to the tail end on the south side at Queen St. West will return Gladstone Avenue and Peel Street to the local residents and relieve it of the heavy traffic it currently experiences.

Dufferin Construction won the $25-million contract to build an underpass which will require lifting a steel girder rail bridge across Queen Street West a metre or so to allow some modifications without disrupting CN and GO train service. The bridge will then be lowered back down.

Site preparation is already under way and work is expected to stretch through the summer into next winter with completion by December 2009. Ancillary projects include items such as landscaping, art, bicycle lanes and lighting.

“There are some blackout days they can’t interfere with traffic because of events and the CNE,” says Schaffner. “But they’re an experienced company and they should have no problems.”

The cast-in-place concrete tunnel will carry two northbound and two southbound lanes of traffic with sidewalks and bicycle lanes. The walls will be adorned with public art, which a committee is currently investigating, says Schaffner.

Concrete was chosen as the preferred method of construction because it allowed minimum structural depth between rail and structural soffit, minimum visual intrusion and material requirements, minimum risk and the shortest construction period. It was also the most cost effective solution.

“It’s going to be a challenge,” says Eddy Marin, Dufferin Construction’s district manager. “The bridge work is being done by CN but we have to work around the trains, the traffic in the city there – which is brutal – and I think the biggest challenge will be around the underground utilities in the area.”

Still, he says, when complete the area will get a much needed esthetics boost.

“It really is going to look beautiful when it’s done,” he says. “We got the start authorization Dec. 1 and we figure on finishing by spring 2010.”

The grade rises quickly from south to north just as to roadway exits the tunnel and the rail line overhead limit the height of the tunnel which could impact CN and Toronto hydro maintenance and lighting requirements.

On the south side it will also open up what is essentially wasted industrial land to redevelopment and landscaping, providing the area with some much needed gentrification, a process which has been ongoing for the last five years with the renovation of the Drake and Gladstone hotels and the burgeoning artist and young urban population.

In addition to improved traffic flow and safety, benefits include better transit speed, increased emergency vehicle access and response times, better air quality, lower noise levels and a savings of 250,000 litres of fuel because drivers won’t be stuck idling in traffic jams.

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