Gardiner repair or tear down decision looming in 2014

The City of Toronto must make a decision about the crumbling Gardiner Expressway by 2014, determining whether the eastern edge of the elevated highway should be torn down or repaired.

It’s a big decision not only for the city, but for councillors, as 2014 is also an election year.

“We have to decide whether we leave it up or we take it down,” deputy city manager John Lively said at a Tuesday news briefing.

“If it’s to stay up…it should be replaced,” he said.

Earlier this year, after chunks of concrete fell from the Gardiner, city council approved $505-million in spending over the next decade to repair the highway. The money is coming from the city’s 10-year capital spending budget.

The revised Gardiner plan, unveiled Tuesday, will see the work shift from the east end to the west end of the highway. The city will wait for an environmental assessment on the east end before making any final decision, Lively said.

“Our plan was to start the deck replacement in the far east end, starting at the Don Roadway in 2013 and complete the eastern deck, at Jarvis Street, in 2018,” John Kelly, acting director for the  city’s engineering and construction services, said Tuesday.

“We’re going to start deck replacement in the west end in 2014,” he said, adding that construction in the east would begin in 2020 and last until 2025.

“We’re going to the western deck because of the [environmental assessment] that’s occurring on the eastern deck,” Lively said.

The assessment was shelved in 2010 but resurrected by the budget committee earlier this year. The study will be completed in no more than five years, staff said Tuesday.

Crews are currently working on a stretch between York and Jarvis streets. The city is replacing and repairing precast concrete box girders, repairing column supports and replacing drainage systems. Six new message signs between Strachan Avenue and Parliament Street are also being installed.

Should the city repair or tear down the Gardiner? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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