City Crews Inspect Gardiner After Chunk Of Expressway Falls
Posted January 29, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Debris falling from the Gardiner Expressway Saturday night prompted city officials to conduct a thorough examination of the suspended roadway first thing Monday morning.
City crews began checking the length of the Gardiner at the start of the workweek, after a 6.5-kilogram chunk of the road fell from its bottom and slammed into the asphalt right in front of a motorist at York Street and the Lake Shore.
An inspection of the area showed no structural problems on Sunday.
“We have an inspection team in our group that inspect bridges, so I’ve got them going out today to follow up on the inspection that the traffic group did on the weekend,” said John Bryson, manager of structures and expressways.
“They’ll report back to me and we’ll determine what our next steps are once we find out what happened.”
“This is the real first incidence I’ve heard of a significant piece falling,” he adds.
Inspection’s aside, the incident has raised concerns among commuters about the road’s condition.
“That was awful, somebody could have been hit really bad,” one remarked.
“I wouldn’t want to walk under it,” adds another.
Much of that concern is likely related to a tragedy that struck Quebec in September, when a bridge collapsed in Laval, just outside Montreal, crushing two cars and killing five people.
Roughly an hour before the incident, motorists reported chunks of concrete falling from the structure.
The Gardiner gets a full inspection every two years. The next inspection was supposed to be in 2008, but city officials say they are moving it forward to this year.
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