Underground infrastructure discoveries delay waterfront work

Robin Careless –

The West Don Lands Committee (WDLC)—much as the name implies—is a committee with the express purpose of  giving a voice to the current and future inhabitants of the West Don Lands.

Its monthly meetings cover a wide variety of endeavors that will affect the region. They also often have guest speakers in to discuss ongoing developments. This month, that guest speaker was James Roche, the director of parks, design and construction for Waterfront Toronto.

Roche is currently overseeing the large-scale changes that are happening to the roadways and waterfronts in Queens Quay. “We’re building a world-class waterfront boulevard for Toronto,” he reports. “The project is reorganizing the street by giving more room for the pedestrians and cyclists who use our waterfront—while making transit and vehicular travel more efficient. The streetcar tracks are being rebuilt in the centre of the street. The area south of the tracks, on the water side of the street, will be devoted to pedestrians and cyclists. The roadway with new parking lay-bys and turning lanes will be north of the tracks and we’re also improving the sidewalks in front of shops and residences on the north side. When we’re finished, the new Queens Quay will have more than 240 new trees and over 2.5 million pieces of Canadian granite along its new promenade and sidewalks.”

While the project is coming along well on schedule, it has not been without its issues. “We always knew the underground work would be the most complex part of this project,” says Roche. “We’ve installed new storm and sanitary sewers and much of the underground utilities have been replaced or upgraded. Working so close to the lake is challenging because water levels are very high requiring extensive dewatering—but we expected that and had measures to deal with it. The most difficult part of the project has been dealing with the many unknowns under the ground. We’ve uncovered lots of old infrastructure where it wasn’t supposed to be—and these conflicts require workarounds. It’s hard for people to see the progress of underground work—but it’s critical infrastructure and it had to be renewed before surface improvements could be made.”

Some members of the community have voiced their concerns about the mass of poles that will be erected for the various cables in the area. But Roche wants to quell their concerns, saying it’s well in hand. “[Waterfront Toronto] and the design team have worked closely with traffic, Toronto street lighting and TTC from design through to construction to minimize the number of poles as much as possible.”

“At certain locations, this is has been a challenge, in particular at Spadina and Queens Quay for instance. The overhead cabling at this location is more extensive due to merging TTC services. To support the web of cables overhead, a greater quantity of poles are required.”

Construction is slated to wrap up in the spring of 2015. From there, Waterfront Toronto is looking towards the Port Lands as well as to the new communities that are being built in the East Bayfront and West Don Lands areas. So, barring unforeseen circumstances, area  residents can look forward to a beautiful new face of Queens Quay in the not so distant future.

For more information, visit www.waterfronttoronto.ca.