Episode 95 of the daily Toronto Real Estate Musing video blog. George O’Neill discusses what he believes should be done with the Gardiner Expressway running near the waterfront in downtown Toronto, using the Ville Marie tunnel in Montreal as an example. If you would like to discuss this topic or are interested in Beach or downtown Toronto real estate, visit www.GeorgeONeill.ca or email George@GeorgeONeill.ca or leave a comment on this blog post. To get to know George better, see www.twitter.com/GeorgeONeill, to follow his daily updates about Toronto real estate.
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RE: What Toronto Should Do With The Gardiner Expressway
The tunnel under Toronto would be cool but who exactly would pay for that?
The city is already having issues with their budget as it is unfortunately.
site rant: I’m still miffed that the city is having me pay for these new garbage/recycle bins only to turn around and fall on their face in dealing with the current unions handling these new bins….but I digress, and is whole different subject…
I remember seeing proposals (ah Google, how I love thee) of what to do with the Gardiner and I personally always liked this one:
http://www.toviaduct.com/skyPATH.htm
What do you think of it?
I think it would be cheaper than the tunnel idea which I think is a been-there-done-that type of solution.
The above project would be something unique to Toronto and bring the tourists that the city needs.
Cheers,
Jeff
The skyPATH does look interesting. Indeed it would be most likely cheaper than a tunnel. In Boston, the “Big Dig” cost in the order of $16 billion I believe.
Whatever the solution, I think a few principles should be established, something like:
1) Traffic flow must not be inhibited, rather should be improved across the downtown city area
2) On-going Opex costs should be in-line with current highway
3) Solution should not inhibit access to the waterfront
….
Just a few thoughts.
George
An underground solution would make the Toronto waterfront a much more attractive place to live and travel through. Only problems I see:
1) Astronomical costs
2) It would have to be a 8 lane underground highway to handle the traffic (refer to point 1)!
But everything is possible.
Hi Chris,
Good points. Yes indeed it would be expensive, and of scale that would meet the expected future volume of traffic, for decades. Not an easy problem to solve, but hopefully all options are being considered. I personally like the tunnel idea, but I have not thought about too many other options since the tunnel seems to me the obvious solution.
Cheers,
George