TORONTO – A new report, just released by the city of Toronto, suggests that there are serious concerns with the safety of the Gardiner Expressway.
The independent assessment by the IBI Group and commissioned by the city, was conducted after several instances of concrete falling from the Gardiner onto the heavily-travelled Lakeshore Boulevard below.
No one was injured, but one person’s luxury car was dented by a small piece of concrete.
Since the incidents of falling concrete, the city has been active in commissioning visual inspections by both city workers and independent contractors to determine the level of repair needed on the Gardiner.
The chipping away at loose concrete by city staff has also been a strategy introduced by the city to prevent further incidences of falling concrete.
The newly released report suggests there are areas of the Gardiner that present “a significant hazard to public safety.”
The report also noted several instances of deterioration which went unmentioned in the city’s report, and suggested the roadway needs “more intensive field investigations during the development of the Expressway Management Strategy.”
City officials maintain that the expressway is structurally sound.
“Well I’ve spoken to our city engineers, and they believe it is safe. That being said, there’s no bridge, or tunnel, or elevated structure, that any engineer would say 100 per cent that something might not happen,” Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong said.
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The Gardiner faces a significant negative impact from Toronto’s temperatures, Minnan-Wong said.
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The constant cycle of freezing and thawing allows cracks to form and water to seep into those cracks. When the weather gets cold again, that water freezes and expands.
The IBI report could in fact lead to changes in the way repairs on the Gardiner are implemented.
According to Minnan-Wong, city staff will soon recommend an additional $15-35 million be allocated for the maintenance of the Gardiner.
According to the IBI report, scheduled repairs could be much more efficient.
The report suggested that the schedule of repairs focused on the abilities of budgets rather than engineering priorities, suggesting the current schedule is “clearly not in the best interest of the public.”
“They’re recommending a different approach. We’re going east to west in terms of doing our repairs, and the approach we should be taking, I think is a little bit different,” Minnan-Wong said. “We should be looking at problem areas and fixing those problem areas.”
A timeline:
The Gardiner’s concrete has been crumbling for decades. Although many roads and pedestrian walkways pass under the bridge, there have no far been no reports of injuries, and only one confirmed report of damage to a vehicle.
Here’s a look at some of the incidents that were reported in the media.
January 22, 1997 – Pieces of concrete fall onto Lake Shore Boulevard, resulting in lane closures.
February, 1999 – A piece falls onto Spadina Avenue.
January 28, 2007 – A 6.5 kilogram chunk falls from the bottom of the Gardiner at York Street and Lake Shore, nearly hitting a motorist.
August 31, 2007 – An 18 kilogram piece of concrete falls, prompting the city to temporarily shut down the eastbound lane of Lake Shore near Yonge as they perform a safety check on the bridge.
January 24, 2009 – Pieces of concrete fall off the Gardiner near Fort York Boulevard.
December 10, 2010 – Chunks of concrete fall onto a laneway under the Gardiner west of Yonge Street.
June 20, 2011 – A 4.5 kilogram piece of concrete falls onto Lake Shore Boulevard. The piece was four centimetres thick and over a metre long. Police close off two lanes of traffic temporarily.
November 1, 2011 – CBC reports that chunks were falling near Bay and Lake Shore, hitting a car, but that the motorist didn’t stop to check the damage.
May 7, 2012 – A fallen piece of concrete causes the closure of two lanes of Lake Shore at Jarvis.
May 10, 2012 – A piece of concrete falls onto Parkside Drive.
May 22, 2012 – A large piece of concrete falls and shatters into pieces at Lower Simcoe and Lake Shore Boulevard.
June 11, 2012 – Pieces of concrete fall from a side wall in the Humber Loop tunnel under the Gardiner. Streetcar service in the tunnel is temporarily shut down.
June 25, 2012 – A piece of concrete falls and dents a Mercedes at Lake Shore and Yonge.
July 18, 2012 – A large chunk of concrete falls onto Bathurst Street. The road is closed for about eight hours as city crews check the area.
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