Mayor John Tory announced that the long-awaited Garrison Crossing bridge that goes over the railway tracks in a busy part of downtown is now open, and ready to be used by both pedestrians and cyclists.
“It creates a vital new connection linking the park system between Trinity Bellwoods in the north and the Fort York grounds in the south,” Tory said at a news conference Tuesday morning.
“It connects vibrant, growing local neighborhoods around King West, Liberty Village and Fort York.”
“Garrison Crossing offers new ways for pedestrians and cyclists to move around in this part of the city,” Tory added.
Garrison Crossing is a two-bridge structure built over two rail corridors that run through the downtown core.
According to a release from the City of Toronto, the 52-metre northern bridge structure spans from the Stanley Park South extension over the Kitchener rail corridor to the north side of Ordnance Triangle Park. The 49-metre southern bridge structure spans from the south side of Ordnance Triangle Park over the Lakeshore West rail corridor, to the grounds of the Fort York National Historic Site.
“When we have these new neighbourhoods growing very rapidly, people wanting to live downtown, people wanting to live on either side of these rail corridors, it becomes crucially important for us to put these structures in place that allow people to connect to each other and to connect to the vital open space and parkland that is something that people miss when they don’t have a backyard or a frontyard,” Tory said.
The project was first proposed in the early 2000s and was approved, but then city council voted to cancel it for cost reasons Tory said.
“In 2012, the council once again approved the project with a reduced budget of $19.7-million,” Tory added, saying the design was approved in 2014 followed by construction in 2016.
Tory said the Garrison Crossing is the first stainless steel bridge to be built in Canada. The project was led by CreateTO and Dufferin Construction Company.
“Stainless steel of course has higher strength than other traditional materials and this resulted in a structure that is lighter, that is more corrosion and weather resistant and requires less maintenance, and that reduces its overall life-cycle cost,” Tory continued.
“The design of the bridge is in of itself remarkable.”
The bridge opening comes just in time for Nuit Blanche, an overnight art festival, from Oct. 5 to 6.
WATCH: Artifacts dating back thousands of years found during Eglinton-Crosstown LRT construction (Sept. 12, 2019)
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