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A crew was hard at work this afternoon spreading and compacting gravel for the fourth track. I just missed getting a shot of the giant dump truck dropping its final load of gravel for the day.

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I emailed the city and Metrolinx recently to try to find some info on construction timelines for the railpath extension south of Dundas and got some conflicting replies.

The city says:
The tender process to hire a contractor is planned for early 2023, with a target to start construction that same year. The estimated construction timeline is approximately 2.5 years.

Meanwhile, Metrolinx says:
[The grading work south of Dundas] has been tendered and is scheduled to take place in early 2024, currently Railpath work is focused on the north side of Bloor Street. At that point work will take about 3 to 4 months, as that is the last part of the project the aim is for completion in late spring 2024.

I assume that the city can't get started on construction until Metrolinx is done in the corridor, so say the city starts work in the middle of 2024, 2.5 years takes us to early 2026 for opening day. They've been studying this since 2012, so best case we're looking at 14 years to build a bike path. I am frustrated!

Metrolinx deserves a lot of the blame for the delays, but why does it take 2.5 years to build a path?
 
See also the East Don Valley trails. There is a tunnel and bridge (iirc) that ML has had to approve/allow for 2-3 years. Very frustrating

Mx held up the bridge to the Lower Don Trail from Dundas for years...........
 
Its the same story but other reasons in other areas.

The Pharmacy Road Finch Hydro corridor trail expansion is being held up by utility companies

The project was slated to begin construction in 2018.

 
Its the same story but other reasons in other areas.

The Pharmacy Road Finch Hydro corridor trail expansion is being held up by utility companies

The project was slated to begin construction in 2018.


Any excuse to delay, delay, delay. Hoping that it would be forgotten about.
 
Its the same story but other reasons in other areas.

The Pharmacy Road Finch Hydro corridor trail expansion is being held up by utility companies

The project was slated to begin construction in 2018.


I don't know how much I should say here..........but I'll say something........

HONI signed off on this corridor early on..........

What took ages was getting the two pipeline companies lined up.

Except, when the pipeline companies finally fell into place, the original agreement to proceed with HONI had expired.

.....

There's a bit more to it, but I'll think I'll leave it there, for now....
 
I emailed the city and Metrolinx recently to try to find some info on construction timelines for the railpath extension south of Dundas and got some conflicting replies.

The city says:


Meanwhile, Metrolinx says:


I assume that the city can't get started on construction until Metrolinx is done in the corridor, so say the city starts work in the middle of 2024, 2.5 years takes us to early 2026 for opening day. They've been studying this since 2012, so best case we're looking at 14 years to build a bike path. I am frustrated!

Metrolinx deserves a lot of the blame for the delays, but why does it take 2.5 years to build a path?

I'm reading the Transportation Services Capital Budget as currently proposed. The applicable bit is below, which I will follow with an explainer:


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Explainer: The Highlighted column on the left is the 2023 proposed budget number, followed b 2024 and 2025 as you shift right.

The good new then is the first couple of number express a tentative commitment to $20M to be spent in-year on this project, which would indicate construction moving ahead, as per @smably 's post.

But what to make of that -10M at the bottom? The Capital budget of every department is littered with these; I believe these are place-holder cuts if the Feds/Province don't fill the 900M gap in the budget; but I will seek to confirm that.

* Edit: Still confirming the exact reason for the placeholder, looking into this may take a few days.

Have confirmed the intent is to proceed with work this year, IF Mx can finish their work in time.
 
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I'm already lamenting the loss of one of the only continuous, routinely snow plowed walking/running routes in the west end with the closure of the Bloor segment since January (more easily navigable on foot via the GO station, but crossing Bloor there is nigh on impossible) but does anyone have info on why the bottom of the Railpath is closed?? Map is unclear & no info besides the Bloor closure when I tried to go on it today. Pic taken on 03/15. 🧐

IMG_1445.jpeg
 
I'm already lamenting the loss of one of the only continuous, routinely snow plowed walking/running routes in the west end with the closure of the Bloor segment since January (more easily navigable on foot via the GO station, but crossing Bloor there is nigh on impossible) but does anyone have info on why the bottom of the Railpath is closed?? Map is unclear & no info besides the Bloor closure when I tried to go on it today. Pic taken on 03/15. 🧐

View attachment 461831
That's been happening or a few weeks, but seemingly only on weekdays
 
I'm already lamenting the loss of one of the only continuous, routinely snow plowed walking/running routes in the west end with the closure of the Bloor segment since January (more easily navigable on foot via the GO station, but crossing Bloor there is nigh on impossible) but does anyone have info on why the bottom of the Railpath is closed?? Map is unclear & no info besides the Bloor closure when I tried to go on it today. Pic taken on 03/15. 🧐

View attachment 461831
That's been happening or a few weeks, but seemingly only on weekdays

Here you go:

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Should re-open next week.
 

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