Here's a genuine question (not being snarky) why were NONE of the big massive red plastic gates that they installed a few years ago (and are huge eye sores) not in use today? None were closed. Just orange pylons across the road right were the open gates stood. If not for this event, what are they waiting for?
That's a good question........let me ask some more............
1) We already have had Union subway station flood twice and the moat at least once in the last few years.......one of those goes back to Andy Byford's time at the TTC. The City is the owner of Union Station, did anybody think to remediate the risk of flooding in oh, the last 7 years? To be clear, in the best scenario, on a day like today there would have been some issues, but they did not need to be this severe/impactful.
2) In the Lower Don, which we know is prone to flooding, there are wooden hydro polls knocked over, with their bases submerged. Anyone think maybe we should have replaced these with either sturdier poles, on elevated bases, or buried the wire?
3) In respect of Lower Don Flooding........and you thought the bike trail project was delayed before..... cough..........
The TRCA and the City identified several key actions to reduce the risks more than 20 years ago......... such as acquiring the site at 777 Dundas East and turning it into a wetland/stormwater storage site.
Additional parcels were evaluated for work adjacent to the DVP as well.........777 was sold to a car dealership which built on the site because the TRCA had no funding to buy it; while the City sat on Parkland acquisition funds. The other projects, have largely not gone ahead either.
I should note that there are options that have been quietly examined through the years to mitigate flooding to the DVP and to the Bala sub. But no one has seriously pursued them because $$$
In the case of the DVP, the obvious choice is to raise the height, of it, even by just 1M; but doing so would mean replacing the Eastern, Queen, Dundas, and Gerrard bridges to raise them by the same, and then regrading the approaches, some of that being quite impactful.
An option not looked at, that I recall, is one of viaducting the DVP, from just south of Bloor to the Lake. By which I mean removing the embankment, and sitting in on piers, with room for water under the highway.
*amusingly
@AlvinofDiaspar was posting on this very subject in the Broadview Eastern Flood Protection thread.
Which I will now need to note, will actually make flooding in the valley worse than it is now, by cutting off the escape of flood waters on to the East Harbour site.
There are less expensive/intrusive options, that we could have at least partially delivered by now, such as aggressively separating combined sewers in the Old City/Toronto/York into Storm and Sanitary sewers. I was very involved in that discussion during the City's Wet Weather Flow Masterplan process. The City opted for the 'cheaper' option being built today (by Coxwell By-Pass), the budget of which, in real terms is now larger than the projected cost was of separating the entire sewer system back then. Sigh.
*****
Foresight, not hindsight.
Make the right investments, in a timely way.
