Lakeshore Will Stay Closed At Least Until Tuesday Afternoon After Water Main Break
Posted November 20, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
But that’s what motorists were facing Monday, after no less than four separate water main breaks led to a flood of problems on the Lakeshore. And now their bad day will turn into a second one, lingering into Tuesday.
Emergency crews were forced to close the busy downtown route from York to Simcoe after water rose knee deep in some places. The H20 was coming up through the sewers and splashing out through a broken 12″ pipe.
Experts managed to turn the water down, but they couldn’t shut it off completely, because some nearby condos use it as the source for their supply.
It took hours, and while the bulk of the water was mopped up, that didn’t solve the problem. When the liquid flowed, it mixed with the already wet ground, creating a muddy mess that’s strewn all over the roadway.
The results were the usual chaos you’d expect. Without the Lakeshore available to drivers, the Gardiner Expressway was jammed even more than usual on Monday, and the closed section remained that way for the entire morning rush.
“A major road like this, the costs can be substantial,” explains Rob Gillis, of Toronto Water Operations. “Compared to a minor street where we just have asphalt. This street, we have concrete and asphalt roadways.
Crews had to dig up the pipe to fix it all. And officials concede it may be Tuesday afternoon before they can reopen the entire street.
It’s the latest in a long series of seemingly endless water main breaks in the city. Crews respond to between 1,600 and 2,000 of the pipe bursts each year.
Officials admit it’s been a rough go so far this fall, as aging infrastructure breaks down faster than they can fix it.
“We have over 5,000 kilometres of water main underneath the city, so half of that is more than 50 years old,” explains the city’s Brad Ross. “There have been water rate increases across the city that council has approved, and that money is going to replace and repair this aging infrastructure.”
And on Monday, that age helped the Lakeshore literally live up to its name.
