Island airport tunnel will be completed in 2014
Posted August 8, 2013 6:42 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The pedestrian tunnel to the island airport, formally known as Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, will be completed in the second half of 2014, the Toronto Port Authority (TPA) said Wednesday.
The TPA released three photos of the excavation, which has now hit the halfway point. Construction began on the project in March 2012 and the excavation will be completed this fall.
“Reaching the halfway point of excavation marks an exciting milestone for the pedestrian tunnel project,” Geoffrey Wilson, president and CEO of the TPA, said in a statement.
“It makes the project’s progress very real and brings us one step closer to providing passengers with reliable, fast and efficient access to Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport.”
The 240-metre-long tunnel will link pedestrians from the foot of Bathurst Street to the island airport — Canada’s 14th busiest airport in terms of passengers handled in 2010.
Currently, a ferry shuttles travellers over to the airport. It’s said to be one of the world’s shortest regularly scheduled ferry routes at just 122 metres.
The pedestrian tunnel is a controversial project — one former mayor David Miller campaigned on stopping back in 2003.
NoJetsTO opposes the airport expansion – but does support a small or ‘boutique’ island airport – and said Wednesday’s announcement was nothing to celebrate.
“It’s an irony that the TPA is putting the tunnel in place 10 years after Miller defeated the bridge to the island airport,” NoJetsTO chair Anshul Kapoor said in a statement.
“The tunnel is the first step towards a massively expanded island airport; jets on the waterfront are next.
“The tunnel doesn’t change anything about the fact that 75 per cent of island airport users arrive by car. With an expanded island airport, traffic gridlock in downtown will only get worse.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story said the entire tunnel would be completed this fall. It is only the excavation that will be finished this year. The tunnel will be open to pedestrians in the second half of 2014.
