TORONTO – After a Global News investigation into the aging steel and concrete holding up the Gardiner Expressway, city staff are saying it is just a matter of time before a decision must be made to either repair or replace the Gardiner.
Through Freedom of Information legislation, Global News obtained thousands of pages of inspection reports, emails and briefing notes detailing hundreds of issues with the elevated portion of the Gardiner Expressway between 2009 and the fall of 2012.
Much of the information revealed in the Global News investigation was previously unknown to Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, chair of the city’s Public Works and Infrastructure Committee.
“I was not aware of these reports that suggested there were punch-throughs and that these problems existed,” Minnan-Wong said.
A punch-through is a hole being created or “punched” into the roadway by a heavy vehicle.
On Wednesday, members of the city’s budget committee discussed options for repairing the crumbling highway.
City councillors spent hours questioning city staff about the environmental assessment (EA) that would have examined a reconfiguration of the Gardiner Expressway and Lake Shore Boulevard.
The environmental assessment would have also examined tearing down the elevated portion of the expressway east of Jarvis Street.
City staff estimates between $30 and $35 million would need to be spent to brace areas of the Gardiner where staff is concerned “about the stability of the deck.”
“The longer it takes to get EA approval the more money that will have to be spent,” said John Kelly, acting director of design and construction, linear infrastructure with the city of Toronto’s Technical Services.
“What we’re saying is the deck of the Gardiner is reaching near the end of its service life and we have to undertake some serious repairs on it,” he said. “It’s simply a matter of age… regardless of the amount of repair work you put into it in that time period, eventually you will have to replace it.”
There is currently a preliminary plan for a 12-year rehabilitation strategy estimated to require approximately $505 million between 2013 and 2022 for repairs included in the 2013-2022 budget.
Politics being played
As a result of the Global News investigation into the Gardiner Expressway, discussion on how to repair the roads dominated the city’s budget committee Wednesday.
Several councillors brought up concerns about the decision to pause the environmental assessment against the previous decisions made by city council.
Others tried to pin the blame on the previous administration.
“If an EA cannot withstand a transition between elections then we have a real problem here,” Councillor Janet Davis said. “This council is a corporate entity that gave direction in 2008, never reversed that direction, but somehow without any further direction it changed.”
However, Minnan-Wong said “it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the EA was halted,” and that decisions are frequently made without the council’s input.
Councillor Gord Perks echoed Davis, saying decisions made without the input of council is “unprecedented” and “undemocratic.”
“It’s an entirely new way of administering the city,” Perks said. “What’s going on now and what’s going on in the previous two years is simply unprecedented in the history of Toronto.”
However, Councillor Doug Ford, the brother of Mayor Rob Ford, placed the blame for the Gardiner’s disrepair on the former administration of Mayor David Miller.
“It was neglected by the past administration,” Ford said. “We are now paying the consequences for their short sightedness.”
Ford noted that millions of dollars allocated in 2008, 2009 and 2010 were not spent on repairs.
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