The previous timelines have been nothing but nonsense. They update it and remove the old versions, but it would be fun to use the Internet Archive to go back and trace all the broken promises they've made over the years...
OK, I did a thing as the Millennials say. I have to give some credit to the City for maintaining most of the updates on the Lower Don Trail Improvements site over time, which catalogue a litany of dashed promises and blown deadlines.
It's still instructive to use the Internet Archive to see what was being promised along the way.I screenshot the site, at points of key updates, starting in 2022 around the time they were re-tendering the bid after the initial contractor failed to get it done.
Text follows each image. I cropped them with the date of the capture at the top right. Pardon the length.
June 25, 2022: A May 2022 updated mentions re-tendering of the contract. Summer 2023 is the stated completion date, even with the re-tendered plan. This was probably never remotely realistic.
March 20, 2023 - A stealthy change was made nearly a year later, pushing the completion date to
Spring 2024. No explanation for this major delay was given. But perhaps the early 2023 date was a typo or holdover from the first contractor's plan. Who knows.
May 20, 2023 - Another update with a helpful closure map that pushes the completion date to
summer 2024. We are now a full year behind the initially given completion date, with no explanation.
May 27, 2023 - No changes, but a more visible update at the top of the page announcing the trail closure dates and the Summer 2024 reopening date.
June 24, 2023 - The first photos of the work site, and the first reasons given for the slipping schedule.
No date changes here and they are framing the delays as "slight." Just wait.
Dec. 5, 2023. A substantial couple of updates with photos and a new delay, with "
late summer 2024" being the new goal.
May 14, 2024. The first update of 2024 mentions the soil conditions that necessitated "revised foundation work" for the sloped path, which seems to have been one of the bigger problems. No date changes here.
July 17, 2024 - Another big update and another big delay, pushing completion to July 2025. So another year tacked on.
At this point we were looking at a full two-year delay from the originally announced completion date. Just wait.
Dec. 14, 2024 - Another update with more details on the problems and the work remaining. No date changes, but the "still anticipated" line at the end doesn't sound convincing.
July 17, 2025 - A couple of updates here, with a new timeline and header and a new completion date:
November 2025.
So another four months have been added since the last completion date of July 2025 was given and then reaffirmed a few months back.
More blame is being place on Metrolinx here than the soil conditions and narrow worksite that was the culprit in past delays.
Current site (Oct. 27, 2025): I just screenshot some of the recent delay explanations given by the city. The new completion date is now
Spring 2026.
For the record, this is approximately
32 months later than the initial completion date of "Summer 2023" that was given back in 2022.
As I said earlier, that 2023 date was never realistic. It was likely an error, or at least wildly optimistic. I'm willing to accept the later change to Spring 2024 that was given when work actually started in May 2023. That still makes Spring 2026 a full 24 month delay – or a 3X increase from the initial 12-month timeline to 36 months. That is very bad.
Also keep in mind I am not even including the time lost to the false-start with the first contractor that was originally supposed to begin in 2021. I feel like that situation was more out of the city's hands, so I am focusing on the re-tendered bid and the current contractor's work.
I noticed that Ruthanne Henry, who had been the project manager on the LDT improvements since way back before COVID, is no longer listed on the site. The new senior project manager listed is Rafie Mehraban.
I don't pin this mess on any other individual at City Hall, though some fault must be found in such a terribly executed project. It would be nice to see a postmortem, given this has cost residents one of our key ravine trails for what will be at least 3 years.
Lastly, for those who read this far,
the work contract was awarded (after the re-tender) to Grascan Construction Ltd., in Sept. 2022. They made the lowest bid of any company for a total around $10.5 million. The contract was meant to end Aug. 31, 2023. I am unsure whether they are still working off that contract, or have amended it since all the problems and delays arose.
As of now, we wait for the spring.
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