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Resident worried he may lose part of backyard after ground collapse at Eglinton LRT site

A photo of the partial collapse at the Eglinton Crosstown LRT construction site from Daniel Unruh's backyard. Submitted / Daniel Unruh

The resident of a Toronto home that backs onto a construction site for the Eglinton Crosstown LRT is worried that he may lose part of his backyard after a portion of the ground collapsed at the worksite.

In a statement, Metrolinx said the incident happened late Tuesday afternoon at the Brentcliffe location.

The transit agency said the “movement of earth” happened on a slope.

No injuries were reported, but resident Daniel Unruh said he has since been told to avoid using his backyard, which borders the site, until further notice.

“If I were to step on the other side of my fence, I would drop 50 to 60 feet,” Unruh told Global News.

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He said back in March he was given a few days’ notice that construction would soon begin just beyond his backyard. Unruh said crews told him that they would carve about three metres away from his fence and his backyard wouldn’t be affected.

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He said around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, officials notified him about the collapse and told him to avoid using his backyard in case of further ground failure.

“The whole project has been devastating for my wife and I and our neighbours,” Unruh said.

“We are fully bracing for losing what could be quite easily 10 metres of our backyard … Every day we wake up and look out our backyard and just pray that it is still there.”

A photo of crews on scene working on the Eglinton Crosstown LRT following a partial ground collapse of earth. Submitted / Daniel Unruh
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Crosslinx Transit Solutions, a network of construction companies contracted by Metrolinx to build the transit line, sent an email Wednesday evening to Unruh who shared it with Global News that engineers are working to “stabilize the embankment, perform geotechnical monitoring and investigate the cause of the soil movement.”

“Fill has been added to the slope to stabilize it. We have also taken steps to reinforce areas of the slope that remain intact. More fill will be added over the remainder of this week,” a spokesperson for Crosslinx Transit Solutions said.

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