Gardiner becoming unstable: Report

TORONTO, Ont. – City engineers are warning that portions of the Gardiner Expressway could become unsafe to drive in six years, according to a report.

The report, which was obtained by the Toronto Star, said nearly half of the elevation portion of the expressway could become increasingly unsafe to drive on if it is not torn out and rebuilt.

McCormick Rankin Corp., the private company that was hired to inspect the Gardiner, said there are two spots along the elevated section of the expressway where they fear a large truck could one day crack a hole through it.

One of those sections is west of Cherry Street, while the other is by Fort York Boulevard.

The report also listed hundreds of other problems, including that the reinforcing steel along the Gardiner as being severely corroded in some areas.

It also said the city should inspect pieces of concrete, which continue to break off and fall.

John Kelly, the city’s acting director of design and construction, said regular maintenance could not have prevented this.

“I don’t believe that a deck replacement could have been averted if we had done other repairs earlier,” he said.

Now the options are to do a deck replacement or to demolish the portion of the Gardiner that runs east of Jarvis Street.

The cost to fix the top layer alone is pegged at $35 million per year over the next 12 years.

An environmental assessment to determine whether a demolition should be done was put on hold in 2010 something Coun. Gord Perks was not thrilled about.

“They do not have it within their authority to overturn a council decision on a full environmental assessment without coming back to council,” he said. “I want to know who told them to do it.

Coun. Denzil Minnan-Wong, chair of the city’s Public Works and Infrastructure Committee, told 680News that council was not told how dangerous the situation was only that surface repairs could be made as they were needed.

“I don’t believe that the band-aid approach used in the past is going to cut it as we move it forward, and so we need to invest more on the Gardiner,” Minnan-Wong said.

“We didn’t have a plan to fix the Gardiner Expressway because previous administration wasn’t investing the money that it needed to get done.”

Some councillors blamed the circumstances on the Miller administration.

In 2008-09, only about $12 million out of an allocated $40 million was spent on Gardiner repairs.

The mayor’s allies pinpoint this as the reason behind the current predicament.

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