[URBAN NOTE] "Gardiner East will be a hybrid solution, council votes "

[rfmcdonald]

The Toronto Star's Jennifer Pagliaro reports on how mayor John Tory's support for the hybrid plan for the Gardiner Expressway took city council.

Mayor John Tory (open John Tory's policard), elected pledging to bring Toronto together as “One Toronto,” scraped out a 24-21 city council vote to save the east Gardiner Expressway for future generations.

To keep the 1.7-km overhead link to the Don Valley Parkway, rather than replace it with a waterfront boulevard, Tory had to woo two colleagues by agreeing to have city staff reconsider previously rejected options, including a traffic tunnel.

[. . .]

Costing $336 million in capital costs and $919 million when you factor in 100-year maintenance, the hybrid would resurface the deck to the DVP and replace the ramps to Logan Ave. with a boulevard east of the Don River. New ramps would be built at Cherry St. Lake Shore Blvd. E. would be reconfigured.

Council also agreed to have staff reconsider objections to the original hybrid that moved the Gardiner north near the railway corridor, and to replacing the east Gardiner with a tunnel. That won Tory the votes of councillors John Campbell (open John Campbell's policard) and Jim Karygiannis (open Jim Karygiannis's policard) and will bring the Gardiner back to public works committee in September.