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The location of the site has not changed so THIS, at least, should have been anticipate. "The project site is complex, narrow, and located between Don River and a rail corridor, which has resulted in some challenges with getting materials and equipment in and out of the site." The work seems to occur in a rather sporadic fashion and I hope the contractor is not our old nemesis Sanscon! If it is, I hold out little hope of it reopening even in late 2024.
UPDATE as of today!

"We have been putting pressure on our consulting engineers for a solution as soon as possible. A little over a month ago when we were advancing foundations, the foundation system designed was found to be not appropriate based on due diligence soil testing the foundation sub-contractor did as part of the first stage of mobilizing for foundations. We have had multiple geotechnical reports that informed the original design and additional recent soil tests to confirm the surprising change in soils information and we are exploring now with all of this information how to expedite a solution as quickly as possible.

As soon as we have clear direction on the impact to the project schedule and budget (and we are exploring acceleration to minimize schedule impacts and all sources of funding) we will post the information to the website."

Sigh!
 
My wife and I were just joking last night about how surprising it must have been for the project engineers to discover mid-way through the project that it was narrow and located between the Don river and the tracks. Who knew?!?

We moved to St. Lawrence almost exactly five years ago, and being close to the Don trail was one of the things we were pretty excited about. Now we're about to move, and we've hardly had time to enjoy it! (Though we have biked the kid up to the Brickworks, fish ladder, etc. using Bayview in recent years, which has been nice.)

IMG_0738.jpg
 
My wife and I were just joking last night about how surprising it must have been for the project engineers to discover mid-way through the project that it was narrow and located between the Don river and the tracks. Who knew?!?

There would no engineers worrying about getting materials/equipment in/out, that would be the GC in discussion w/the project manager.

I would say, while I see that as remarkably straight forward on paper..............

(you pave or place hard rubberized inserts between the rails on lower part of the Bala sub, you replace fence on the Bayview and trail side with gates. .....)

I will cut the City some slack and say Metrolinx are of the most infernal groups to deal with.......they are responsible for a host of delays on multiple city projects. I'm not going to publicly list them all of off, as I don't wish to put any sources in an awkward spot...........

Of course, that problem was known at the project outset and a viable solution ought to have been arrived at before work began.
 
There would no engineers worrying about getting materials/equipment in/out, that would be the GC in discussion w/the project manager.

I would say, while I see that as remarkably straight forward on paper..............

(you pave or place hard rubberized inserts between the rails on lower part of the Bala sub, you replace fence on the Bayview and trail side with gates. .....)

I will cut the City some slack and say Metrolinx are of the most infernal groups to deal with.......they are responsible for a host of delays on multiple city projects. I'm not going to publicly list them all of off, as I don't wish to put any sources in an awkward spot...........

Of course, that problem was known at the project outset and a viable solution ought to have been arrived at before work began.
There already is a gate from Bayview to the tracks, made by ML a year or so ago when they needed access to rebuild the signal bridge.

1702928501328.png

and Grascan (the cycle track folk, opened another opposite the new River & Fifth development . Access is NOT the problem,.

1702928610530.png
 
Received today....

Dear Danforth-Kingston 4 All supporters,


As we head into the holiday season, I hope everyone has the Danforth Kingston Complete Streets on their wish list for 2024! However given the results of the November 30th Councillor by-election, we will certainly have our work cut out for us to make this a reality.



As I am sure everyone is aware, Parthi Kandavel is the new Councillor for Scarborough Southwest, having successfully campaigned on a car-centric platform for Danforth and Kingston Road in spite of the rash of recent road violence along that stretch of our community (see hereand here for recent examples). Days after the election, Councillor Kandavel made it clear: "he is not in favour of any initiatives such as the Danforth-Kingston complete streets project"


However we choose to see glimmers of hope in these darkest of days. For one, we have now collected almost 700 signatures on our petition supporting the Danforth Kingston complete streets project from folks all across our community. We are a powerful force, and will need to mobilize once the City begins public consultations on the project in early 2024. If you haven’t already, please sign up with the City to receive updates on the project. Secondly, we believe that we have an opportunity to shift hearts and minds through proactive engagement with decision makers like Councillor Kandavel. Just like the Grinch whose heart grew three sizes after having seen the joy of community coming together, we will engage compassionately with Councillor Kandavel in the New Year to demonstrate the critical importance of this project to our community and help him be the leader we truly need to advance towards a safe, inclusive, and sustainable Scarborough Southwest.


We look forward to working with you all to make Danforth Kingston a complete street in 2024! And if you feel this project is important to you and you would consider being part of our organizing team in 2024, please reply to this email.


All the best to you and yours over this holiday season.


Ian McVey, on behalf of the DK4All organizing team
 
There already is a gate from Bayview to the tracks, made by ML a year or so ago when they needed access to rebuild the signal bridge.

View attachment 528199
and Grascan (the cycle track folk, opened another opposite the new River & Fifth development . Access is NOT the problem,.

View attachment 528200

A report on the agenda for the January 8th meeting of Government Management Ctte seeks to authorize an increase in fees for DTAH who are overseeing aspects of the Lower Don Trail project.


From the above:

1703856469353.png


1703856499218.png

1703856528649.png
 
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A nice overview for 2024...


For those of us in Ward 20:

"Scarborough Southwest election results: The election to replace long-time councillor Gary Crawford took place on November 30th. There were bicycle-friendly candidates on the slate, including second place finisher Kevin Rupasinghe, a former Cycle Toronto campaigner who started his volunteer advocacy with Bells on Bloor, a predecessor group to Community Bikeways. The winner in the bi-election, Parthi Kandavel is going to need some encouragement to come around to appreciating the need for bike lanes and improved road safety."
 
A nice overview for 2024...


For those of us in Ward 20:

"Scarborough Southwest election results: The election to replace long-time councillor Gary Crawford took place on November 30th. There were bicycle-friendly candidates on the slate, including second place finisher Kevin Rupasinghe, a former Cycle Toronto campaigner who started his volunteer advocacy with Bells on Bloor, a predecessor group to Community Bikeways. The winner in the bi-election, Parthi Kandavel is going to need some encouragement to come around to appreciating the need for bike lanes and improved road safety."
Now that we have a new bike-hesitant ward 20 counsellor, I wonder - could he be convinced to pave the north half of the eroded Gus Harris trail? It could be framed as a "parallel" concession to opposing Kingston-Danforth, although ideally we would get both...
 
Cycling update Report coming to Infrastructure Committee https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2024.IE10.2
From the above:

1704207339246.png


1704207388730.png


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1704207465481.png


So, this is not bad at all.

I have it on good authority, this is the 'small' report for this year.

The big report should be on the agenda of I&E in March with a lot more projects.

Edit to add:

The Harbord project is particularly promising in that in that it removes some parking (all parking from Spadina to Huron), in that latter location will add landscaped planters to separate the cycle tracks from the vehicle lanes; it will also add 2 turnboxes for cyclists (St. George and Ossington) permanent curbs, and raised bus stop platforms.

The Dundas segments remove some parking as well, and swap it from curbside to drive-lane side with parked cars become a barrier for the cycle tracks which will now be curbside.
 
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Some details on some of the Cycle Lane/Track upgrades, starting with University Avenue:

1705414275238.png

1705414308377.png


***

Now for the Harbord/Hoskin Corridor:

1705414397153.png


1705414428933.png


This one also comes with a render:

1705414460308.png


More to come in next post.
 

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