Obtained by request from the City
City of Toronto plan for the Gardiner East and Don Valley Parkway realignment
The drawings from the City's Request for Proposals, with a plain-language guide to reading them.
How to read it: the Don Valley Parkway comes down the right-hand side, Cherry Street is on the left, and Lake Shore Boulevard runs along the bottom.
James walks through it
Forty seconds on what the drawing shows: the curve coming down, where it's rebuilt, the new ramps at Cherry Street, and how we got here.
Where this comes from
These are the City's engineering drawings for the Gardiner Expressway and Lake Shore Boulevard East redesign. They're part of the Request for Proposals that has gone out to the engineering, design and build firms bidding on the project.
What you're looking at
Picture driving south on the Don Valley Parkway. Today you climb up and around the big bend where the DVP turns into the Gardiner. That bend is where the old ramps connected.
Under this plan, that whole section of the Gardiner and Lake Shore moves north. On the drawing, the new Gardiner makes a sharper turn off the DVP, and Lake Shore moves up to run underneath it. Both head west to Cherry Street, where new on- and off-ramps will be built.
The bend where the old ramps connected is coming down. It will be rebuilt a couple of hundred metres further north.
Why
The current road is at the end of its life. Moving it north also frees up the land underneath for new neighbourhoods.
Let's get to work
If this is the kind of councillor you've been waiting for, there are easy ways to help. Put up a sign, lend a hand, or chip in. Every bit moves Ward 19 forward.
You can also reach James directly at hello@jamesdann.ca