TORONTO – City council will soon consider a plan to shorten the 20-year rebuild of the Gardiner Expressway by nearly eight years.
The plan, which could cost nearly $433 million according to the Toronto Sun involves building sections of the highway off-site and installing them onto the expressway rather than re-building the highway foot-by-foot.
Mayor John Tory said the design change could save up to eight years of constant construction and save the economy millions that would otherwise be lost to congestion.
“This is something that is going to have again, a tremendous payback to the economy,” he told reporters at a Monday morning press conference. “It’s a good payback for the economy and it’s a good payback for the value of their time.”
The change would be the city’s second attempt at expediting the rebuild of the Gardiner Expressway since Tory has become mayor. He announced in December plans to spend an additional $2 million to fast track construction work on the eastern portion of the Gardiner Expressway.
That money is being spent to increase crew and equipment resources and aims to cut the schedule by roughly two months. The section of the Gardiner from the CNE to Grand Magazine Street, just east of Bathurst, is expected to be finished by May. In that case, Tory said the congestion caused by construction costs the city nearly $1 million a day.
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