rfmcdonald | [URBAN NOTE] "Council moves on new approach to funding rehabilitation of Gardiner" (Reply)

The Toronto Star's Jennifer Pagliaro writes about the continued problems with funding the maintenace of the increasingly decrepit Gardiner Expressway.

City council has voted to move forward with plans for rehabilitating the Gardiner Expressway, backing a staff plan estimated to reduce the ballooning costs of the work by more than $1 billion.

The vote followed the news buried in a staff report published late last month that the cost to both rebuild the Gardiner East and repair the western section of the elevated expressway had increased in price from $2.6 billion to $3.6 billion.

Out of concern some sections of the Gardiner require urgent repair and the increased costs were unacceptable, staff recommended abandoning a public-private partnership plan to pay for the project.

The $2.3 billion that staff say is now required under a new, more conventional approach, is already accounted for in the city’s 10-year capital budget, staff said.

The earlier increase in costs had raised the possibility a group of councilors who backed tearing the eastern section down and building a boulevard for less than half the cost, would try to re-open that debate.