Tearing down Gardiner more economical than repairing it: report

A study on the Gardiner East environmental assessment was released on Wednesday, suggesting that tearing down the eastern part of the expressway — the elevated stretch east of Jarvis — would be cheaper than repairing it.

The 66-page report by a consultant team will make its way to the Public Works Committee next week, and then go to council for a vote in June.

The report suggests a change in city staff’s position, after it suggested back in February the removal option was the preferred alternative at a cost of $470 million.

City staff previously recommended that removing the elevated section would be the cheapest and best option, but it would also delay drivers by about 10 minutes.

Since then, staff has been studying a “hybrid option” — or a partial removal. The assessment looked at possibly creating a hybrid that would mostly maintain the elevated roadway for a 1.7-kilometre stretch and reroute the highway between Jarvis Street and the Don Valley Parkway. That option would cost $920 million.

The hybrid option would keep a connection between the Gardiner and Don Valley Parkway and is expected to lower travel times.

The hybrid and removal options both have apparent economic merits on a regional level.

The hybrid option is “modestly preferred” because the increase in travel times would be as much as three minutes less than a complete removal, the report said.

It also found that removal is “modestly preferred” for the local economy since it could crease 4,100 jobs, compared to 2,100 jobs for the hybrid scenario.

However, the report said removal is a more fiscally viable option, because it “results in more land revenues than the hybrid alternatives.”

The stretch in question now carries 5,700 vehicles an hour in both directions during morning rush hour.

Retaining the eastern portion of the expressway as an elevated highway would cost the city $870 million, CityNews learned back in April.