Councillor Jaye Robinson (Ward 25 Don Valley West) held a news conference at Parliament Street and Gerrard Street East to announce new infrastructure pans according to The Star. Robinson said "Like last year, 2018 is going to be a busy year on our roads for construction. This is critical work that needs to be done. We need to make sure that we are renewing our aging infrastructure to improve the quality of our network of roads, bridges, sewers and water mains."
$360 million will be designated to roads, expressways and bridges; $299 million on sewers and water mains; and $61.2 million on basement flooding protection.
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Mayor John Tory stated in a release, "Upgrading and renewing the City's infrastructure is essential to keeping Toronto a world class city." "This work is necessary to support our busy and growing city, to ensure better roads, upgrade water and sewer infrastructure and invest in public transit." Construction will be ongoing during the summer months with some construction starting later in the year.
Per Global News, with more than 200 infrastructure projects planned, the City of Toronto staff stated that many of the projects will have 24/7 and extended hours of work to shorten the impact on traffic on our roads. The following is a list of the major projects broken down by each community:
ETOBICOKE
- Six points reconfiguration around the area of Bloor Street West, Dundas Street West and Kipling Avenue
- Resurfacing Eglinton Avenue West from Islington Avenue and Jane Street (continuation from 2017)
- Replacing watermain and road resurfacing on Kipling Avenue from Albion to Belfield Roads
- Road resurfacing on Martin Grove Road from Lavington Drive to Eglinton Avenue West
DOWNTOWN and RIVERDALE
- Rehabilitating the Gardiner Expressway from Jarvis to Cherry Streets (projected to start later in 2018)
- Replacing watermain and road surfacing on Jarvis Street from Dundas Street East to Queen Street East
- Replacement of the TTC track and concrete work at the intersection of Parliament Street and Gerrard Street East
- Replacing watermain and road resurfacing on Adelaide Street East from Jarvis to Parliament Streets
- Replacing watermain and road resurfacing on Dundas Street West between Bay Street and Spadina Avenue
- Streetscape work on Harbour Street and multi-use trail construction (continue until July)
- Replacing TTC track at Dundas Street East and Broadview Avenue intersections and also on Dundas Street East from Broadview Avenue to Gerrard Street East (construction to last about eight weeks)
SCARBOROUGH
- Structural relining of watermain from Kennedy Road to Elesmere Road and Lawrence Avenue East
- Resurfacing of road on Pharmacy Avenue between Sheppard Avenue East and Finch Avenue East and also from Lawrence Avenue East to the Canadian Pacific Railway tracks north of Lawrence Avenue East
The City of Toronto has a map that shows all the active construction projects.
Councillor Jaye Robinson commented that the city has a multi-billion dollar repair backlog per CP24 News. She stated that even though the City of Toronto is planning on spending an additional $15 million on its roads, bridges, sewers and water mains this year compared to the previous year, it will not be sufficient to put a significant dent in the $3 billion repair backlog for road infrastructure and the roughly $5.5 billion repair backlog for Toronto Water infrastructure. She also said, "If I am re-elected, I will be pushing to spend more money on infrastructure in our city because there is a major backlog and we will never catch up unless we direct more funds to these initiatives." She stated that a few of the water mains that are being replaced are approaching 140 years of age.
According to the Daily Hive, these infrastructure projects will result in the completion of about 140 kilometres of road resurfacing work and 300 kilometres of sewer and watermain upgrading.
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