[W. K. Lis]

Toronto driver's windshield smashed by concrete falling from Gardiner Expressway​

From link.

Try as they might to take down parts of the crumbling Gardiner Expressway in a controlled fashion, the City of Toronto has yet to prove effective in preventing cars from being thwomped by falling concrete.

Every local driver's worst nightmare came true for one man less than 24 hours ago, when a piece of the problematic highway came crashing through his back windshield.

Andrew Addison says he was driving east along Lake Shore Boulevard, beneath a portion of the Gardiner that is currently being demolished for new infrastructure in the Port Lands, around 7:45 p.m. on Thursday when he heard a loud smashing noise.

"I was stopped at a red at the Don Roadway intersection," he tells blogTO, explaining that he initially thought he had been rear-ended.

"But I looked in the rear view mirror the and car behind was pretty far back," he says.

"Then I noticed the window was shattered. A second later it all collapsed into the car, and I realized something had fallen from the steel girder, 30 feet above, that I was stopped under."

Addison pulled over immediately and called the police. An officer came to assess the situation and, after making a report, sent Addison on his way.

"He told me I could go. It didn't seem like he would be closing the road which suprised me, given the danger," said the driver. "If I had been stopped six feet further back, it would have fallen through the front windshield and I would have been quite injured or worse."

Toronto Police Service confirmed to blogTO that they did recieve a report of an object hitting a driver's windscreen last night in the Don Roadway and Lake Shore area.

"Officers attended and checked the area and any nearby structures. Nothing of concern was found," said TPS Media Relations Officer Caroline de Kloet. "The driver was directed to report the incident to the Collision Reporting Centre for insurance purposes and for further investigation."

Addison considers himself lucky to be alive, as do I'm sure others who've been in his position. Still, he's concerned about what could happen to someone else the next time Toronto's ancient elevated highway decides to shake off some concrete — especially now, while active construction takes place in the area.

The demolition of the Logan Avenue ramp is expected to continue through October of 2021, with more work to follow on Lake Shore Boulevard East itself in November.

On weekends, Lake Shore is actually being closed off between Cherry Street and Carlaw Avenue. Drivers are free to use impacted parts of the road any other time, however. Addison believes this is a bad idea.

"Lake Shore should be closed in that section," he says. "Someone could be hurt or killed."

Anyone who sees concrete falling from the Gardiner Expressway is encouraged to contact the city. You can learn how to do so here, on a website that someone at some point has deemed necessary to set up specifically for that purpose.

 

[Thewardens_hauling_heavy]

Toronto driver's windshield smashed by concrete falling from Gardiner Expressway​

From link.

Thats scary! I would have urged him to contact PDI directly so they could triple check. I can personally attest 7 man lifts worked for 6 hours clearing the top of those girders with shovels and brooms than blasted with our air canons.
Than was rechecked with drones. While every attempt can be made it’s still possible to miss on something of this magnitude.
If the city would have given the green light for a 7 day closure this nightmare would have never been a incident. They wanted to do it in one shot but the plan was shot down and broke into weekends.
But like I said I can attest to the cleanup as I was there for it all and watched it all.

**Update**
I spoke with the Project Manager before leaving work today. It was the first time hearing of the incident. The Police failed to even contact PDI of this incident. Pretty sad, one would think the police would have made contact.

 

[DSC]

They DID make amazingly good progress last weekend.

With our first weekend of ramp removal complete, 95% of the decking from the Gardiner Expressway ramps to Logan Avenue have been removed and bent 337 was also demolished. This weekend, crews will continue work removing girders and bents. SEE: Construction Notice #21 https://portlandsto.ca/?s=construction+notice&submit=Find+results&orderby=date&order

 

[drum118]

Here is my take on where demo will stop.

Everything for the eastbound lanes can be remove up to bent 330. The westbound lanes can be remove up to bent 315.

Plies of concrete in the centre median with some of it being moved to the south side lot to be stock pile for the time being.

With most of the bents gone at Don Roadway, it sure open the area up and a sign of things to come.

2 sections to the west of the ramp still needs to have concrete remove from the beams as well for the area to where demo will stop. Then there is the ramp itself. Looks like the retaining wall of the ramp is to remove this weekend as well the dirt for the ramp.

Looking at the remaining bents for the first phase removed back in 2001, going to be a fight to keep a few for this phase.

Photos to follow.

 

[Thewardens_hauling_heavy]

Here is my take on where demo will stop.

Everything for the eastbound lanes can be remove up to bent 330. The westbound lanes can be remove up to bent 315.

Plies of concrete in the centre median with some of it being moved to the south side lot to be stock pile for the time being.

With most of the bents gone at Don Roadway, it sure open the area up and a sign of things to come.

2 sections to the west of the ramp still needs to have concrete remove from the beams as well for the area to where demo will stop. Then there is the ramp itself. Looks like the retaining wall of the ramp is to remove this weekend as well the dirt for the ramp.

Looking at the remaining bents for the first phase removed back in 2001, going to be a fight to keep a few for this phase.

Photos to follow.

Pretty spot on to the plan, beams will be the main focus this weekend and the most eastern section of decking. Decking will be finished this weekend and majority of the ramp taken out, with a large push on removing beams.
The pillars are quite tough and the big iron is going to be used to hammer and split it open like a flower as the 1” rebar is showing signs of a fight for the large UPX950 Processor.

To give a comparison in these expressway pillars compared to that of say highway 401. Your typical pillar supports on a post tension or rigid frame bridge the upx950 processor can chew them with no backup from hammers in 20-30 minutes.
The pillar at the Don roadway was a good test to see the fight they would put up. It was quite impressive. The UPX 950 failed to complete a cycle and hammers from the 60 ton machines were needed. The large 120 ton machine will be tracked down by next weekend and will hit the pillars along side the 60 ton machines splitting them open and the UPX950 processor will follow eating them a lot easier.
It will be quite the thing to witness as the biggest muscle will be focused on the pillars and it’s paramount there is zero damage to the guardrail so flopping them over is not an option.

 

[NW87]

Cutting of the beams this morning.

 

[wopchop]

Look at that old beautiful baseball stadium! Love how the 400 was supposed to come down all that way to meet the Gardiner. Oh the fun we'd have had if that had connected.

Right .. and literally destroy entire neighbourhoods and thousands of homes in the process.
SO much fun!

 

[DSC]

Looking at the remaining bents for the first phase removed back in 2001, going to be a fight to keep a few for this phase.

Why on earth would anyone want to save any of these bents? I know it seems to be an obsession with some here but really ... they are pieces of ugly and deteriorating concrete and if you really like bents you can see the few that are still standing a bit further east or the many under the still-standing part of the Gardiner further west.

 

[mburrrrr]

Saturday morning looking south by the closed.pedestrian bridge over the river./western side path.

 

[hawc]

Pretty spot on to the plan, beams will be the main focus this weekend and the most eastern section of decking. Decking will be finished this weekend and majority of the ramp taken out, with a large push on removing beams.
The pillars are quite tough and the big iron is going to be used to hammer and split it open like a flower as the 1” rebar is showing signs of a fight for the large UPX950 Processor.To give a comparison in these expressway pillars compared to that of say highway 401. Your typical pillar supports on a post tension or rigid frame bridge the upx950 processor can chew them with no backup from hammers in 20-30 minutes. The pillar at the Don roadway was a good test to see the fight they would put up. It was quite impressive. The UPX 950 failed to complete a cycle and hammers from the 60 ton machines were needed. The large 120 ton machine will be tracked down by next weekend and will hit the pillars along side the 60 ton machines splitting them open and the UPX950 processor will follow eating them a lot easier. It will be quite the thing to witness as the biggest muscle will be focused on the pillars and it’s paramount there is zero damage to the guardrail so flopping them over is not an option.

Very interesting. Yeah not knowing about any of this I have to say that when i saw how big the rebar was inside the bents I actually said, "Wow!" out loud. It's pretty crazy.

 

[drum118]

Sept 10
There is another 65 shots up on site

Should be gone now or tomorrow

Huge different look now

Without closing the DVP on ramp, this section will be tough to remove as well the furthest you can go without issues for the DVP ramp..

To remove the westbound ramp from bent 331 to 316 will have an impact on the DVP ramp one way or another, but can be done with an overnight closure where the ramp crossover the westbound.

That one hell of a number of bolts for each beam connecting to the bent as well for the bent itself. Cutting was the fast and easy way to remove the beams and will be a bitch to remove the bent.

To disappear in the next few years

 

[hawc]

Will the city likely burry the high voltage transmission lines and towers in this area too?

 

[drum118]

Such a waste of time by the city and waterfront Toronto all so some development company can build condos.

What do you expect to see in place of what is happening??

Love to see the Gardiner go 100% with a park along the Keating channel for 500-1000 feet before X shows up.

 

[drum118]

Will the city likely burry the high voltage transmission lines and towers in this area too? View attachment 348291

Not that I am aware of as they are remaining on Commissioner St if and when the LRT gets built on it. They rebuilt thinner towers for the Mouth of the Don

 

[EnviroTO]

Such a waste of time by the city and waterfront Toronto all so some development company can build condos.

So the vacant land that has a high risk of flooding is not a waste, but the city and WT replacing infrastructure that is falling apart, putting in flood protection, putting in a huge park system, turning the underutilized land into fully utilized land is a waste? Industrial wasteland is good and parks, communities, retail, employment, placemaking is bad? Interesting perspective you have there.