construction | as I walk Toronto

Posts Tagged ‘construction’

animal spirits watching over

Posted: February 8, 2024 in galleries
Tags: AGO, Art Gallery of Ontario, construction, dinosaur, owl, painting, pipeline, The Excavators, Travis Shilling, Tyrannosaurus Clan

The Art Gallery of Ontario has recently acquired two new paintings by Ojibwe artist Travis Shilling. Both paintings are from a series of 11 paintings titled “Tyrannosaurus Clan” that depict varies spirit animals looking over, or observing, people building a pipeline through a subdued coloured landscape. The people are unaware that they are being watched; there is no interaction between the two.

below: An owl perches on a piece of heavy equipment in this painting that is simply titled “Owl”.

below: A dinosaur type creature embodies other species in “The Excavators”

It’s a mess!

Posted: January 27, 2024 in construction, intersections
Tags: construction, hoardings, Ontario line, pedestrians, people, Queen St., sidewalks, Yonge St.

Queen Street is now closed to all traffic from just east of Bay Street to Yonge Street and again between Yonge and Victoria Streets…. for about four and a half years (any bets on 5 years? or more?). The new Ontario Line subway is being built here. There will be 4 stops along Queen – Moss Park which is between Sherbourne and Parliament, then Yonge, Osgoode, and finally a stop at Spadina & Queen before the line heads south to King Street and then the Exhibition.

Because of the existing infrastructure in the area there wasn’t much room for construction, hence the takeover of the street. 501 Queen streetcars and buses are diverting along Richmond and Adelaide streets.

It all makes for a complicated mess for pedestrians.

below: The first warning sign of changes ahead, a little orange sign that says that the sidewalk on the north side of Queen Street is closed between Victoria and Yonge.

below: Queen and Victoria, looking west towards the construction

below: Looking south on Victoria from Queen

below: Ontario Line hoardings.

below: Northeast corner of Yonge & Queen

below: Looking east from Yonge

below: Westward view past concrete barriers and wobbly green and metal fencing

below: Crossing Queen Street

below: From the Eaton Centre looking east past Yonge Street.

below: Entrance to the Queen subway station

below: A break in the construction zone for pedestrians.

below: Barricade across the sidewalk on the south side, by the Eaton Centre

below: Queen Street is closed in front of Old City Hall

intersections – McCowan and Sheppard

Posted: November 11, 2023 in construction, graffiti and street art, intersections, locations, transportation
Tags: construction, equipment, machines, Metrolinx, Nugget Ave., railway, Scarborough, Sheppard, subway, trains, trucks, tunneling, West Highland Creek

After years of false starts, indecision re routes, and all the other consequences of being City Council’s favorite political football, the new Scarborough subway extension is underway.

Once upon a time, the extension was to only go to Scarborough Town Centre and was derided as the “One Stop Subway”. Now it seems to be three stops from the present Kennedy station with the end point being at McCowan and Sheppard. In true Metrolinx style, it seems like the last station is going to be called Sheppard East. Such imagination! … to have three stations called Sheppard! That seems to be the situation at present…. as for tomorrow’s situation? Who knows…..

In case you’ve never been to that intersection, let me show you what’s there…..

below: Looking west on Sheppard approaching McCowan with Metrolinx site on the right hand side. This construction site is very large and dominates the area.

below: One of the entrance gates to the Metrolinx construction site. Note all the stacked concrete sections that will form the tunnel walls.

below: This blue object is part of the equipment needed to move dirt brought to the surface by the Tunnel Boring Machine that is working underground (There is also a TBM working out in Rexdale on the Crosstown West).

It is a very big machine

below: Gate B

In general, the area south of Sheppard is residential while the area north of Sheppard is industrial or commercial. Canadian Tire is on the northwest corner.

below: Apartments on Sheppard (south side, east of McCowan)

below: Because of the angle from which this photo was taken, the exact locations are slightly unclear. The Medical Clinic is 4651 Sheppard East. To the west of that is a vacant lot that used to be a gas station and it is on the SE corner of McCowan and Sheppard; it is in the process of being redeveloped. The apartment building is actually on the SWt corner of McCowan and Sheppard.

below: looking east on Sheppard from McCowan

below: Walking McCowan north of Sheppard is partially impeded by a fence across the sidewalk…. but it is easily bypassed. Nugget Avenue is just beyond the fence.

below: Looking southeast from McCowan and Nugget where West Highland Creek branches. The large Metrolinx site fills the triangle formed by McCowan, West Highland Creek, and Sheppard Avenue. The white apartment building in the distance is on Sheppard Ave.

The creek’s concrete bed might make for easy management of the water flow but it makes for an ugly scene – unfriendly to both nature and people. There are parks north of here on both branches of the creek but here where most of the land use is industrial or commercial, little attention is paid to the esthetics.

below: Dufferin Concrete at Nugget and McCowan

below: Nugget Avenue crosses West Highland Creek. The plaza at 20 Nugget Ave, with the red and white stripes, was shut down (bought out) by Metrolinx. Apparently, the two-acre property is needed for an emergency exit and underground tail track for the future Sheppard East Station.

below: Spotted on a bulletin board at a bus shelter on Nugget (It’s a collection of bible verses).

below: Immediately north of Nugget Avenue are train tracks. This is the western edge of the large CPR Toronto Yard. If you are interested in this yard and some of the trains, I blogged about it previously (Around the marshaling yards – with love and peace).

below: North side of tracks along McCowan

Dupont Street – the western end

Posted: October 26, 2023 in construction, locations, old buildings
Tags: bull, construction, cranes, Davenport Diamond, Dufferin, Dupont, emily may rose, graffiti, halloween, houses, industrial, Jacquie Comrie, Jesus graffiti, Lucky Convenience, murals, Sovereign Smoke, St. Ephrasinia church, Wallace Ave.

For the whole length of Dupont Street, from Avenue Road to Dundas West, the street runs parallel to, and south of, Canadian Pacific railway tracks. The proximity to the railway was a major reason that the street was home to many industries. Back in June I walked a section of Dupont east of Ossington (see Dupont Street Scenes).

A couple of weeks ago I explored west of Ossington and I’d like to show you a few pictures from that walk. The last part of the walk was a wander through some of the streets and alleys south of Dupont.

below: There are still a few reminders of Dupont’s industrial past…

Dupont has always been a very mixed street with residences

and businesses side by side. A working class street.

below: A more recent addition to the street – Sovereign Smoke (cannabis) sits beside the tire store (or mechanic).

below: Looking west along Dupont towards Dufferin – where the Galleria Mall used to be there is now a wall of glass.

Same site, different angle

below: On the west side of Dufferin, the street is being reconstructed.

below:Re-routing the sidewalk on the south side of Dupont at Emerson

below: Looking west on Dupont at Emerson. The two tall buildings on the right are on the north side of the railway tracks. The apartment building in the center of the photo was built in the 1960s or 1970s.

below: A colourful mural by Jacquie Comrie

below: Under the tracks near Lansdowne.

The “Suitman” Mural was first painted and funded with $2000 received from the City of Toronto’s Clean and Beautiful program. But after Rob Ford was elected mayor of Toronto in 2010 and began his own “clean up” campaign, it was painted over with dull grey paint. Not a bright move considering that Joel Richardson was paid by the city to paint it in the first place. Late in October 2011 it was replaced with a similar mural as seen here. It took six weeks to repaint, 25 gallons of paint were used along with 100 large cans of spray paint. Photos of the whole mural (on both north and south sides of the street) from 2011 and 2013 are on a previous blog post.

below: “And do thy duty even if it be humble, rather than another’s even if it be great. To die in one’s duty is LIFE: to live in another’s is death.” [quote from the Bhagavad Gita, a 700 verse scripture that part of the Hindi epic ‘Mahabharata’]

below: A GO train passes over the new elevated section of the tracks as it crosses Dupont Street. This is the Davenport Diamond Grade Separation project on the GO line to Barrie.

below: Looking north from Wallace Ave (towards Dupont) at the south end of the 1.4 km of elevated track. Although the tracks are functional, the streets and paths below are still a work in progress.

below: (On Wallace by the new elevated tracks) A bull and a maze makes me think of the story of the Minotaur, a creature in Greek mythology with the body of a man and the head of a bull. The maze, or labyrinth, was made for King Minos of Crete to hold the Minotaur.

below: Around the corner from the bull is a mural by Emily May Rose. It faces the tracks on what is now a vacant piece of land – shall see what becomes of it.

below: An old “Stop Harper” sticker – topsy turvy but still hanging in there. Almost as old and worn as the railing below it.

The “Strength in Numbers” mural at the next underpass to the west (by the West Toronto Railpath) has been tagged over. The link leads to a blog post from July 2016 if you are interested in what it looked like when it was newer.

below: Dovercourt signs with a maple leaf in the center. “Since 1985” refers to the founding of Dovercourt Village which is south of Dupont to Bloor between Christie on the east side and Dufferin on the west.

below: Alley infill – a tiny house!

and other small houses too.

below: Santo Antonio Coin Laundry

below: The red brick building was built in 1909 and it’s shape suggests that it was once a store. Back in the late 1800s and early 1900s, these stores were very popular and could be found in most neighbourhoods. With changing lifestyles (cars, larger grocery stores) and laws (only residences in residential areas) these old stores became houses. Last year Toronto City Council passed a new by-law allowing small scale retail and service businesses in residential areas.

below:Lucky Convenience Store

below: St. Ephrasinia Orthodox church (American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox).

below: Development notice – what appears to be an older building with three apartments might disappear to become a three storey building with ten units. Nice to see higher density without the ego of the developers vying to see who can build the tallest building.

below: Making use of the tiny yard space – melon vines covering the fence and running along the walls.

below: Another use of a front window! Whenever I see a house like this I always wonder if there are sentimental reasons why it is those particular items that sit there. The roses with their purple ribbon were probably important as Mary now watches over them. But one of these ducks has a dead plant – why? What is on your front window sill?

It’s getting close to Halloween so don’t be surprised if there are some creepy folks lurking around!

But not everyone is scary… Fatima and the scarecrow

A shout out to Cats Eye Coffee where we started that day. Also, a thanks to Nancy who was my tour guide and walking partner!

Elvis is in the alley

Posted: October 16, 2023 in alleys
Tags: alley, art, beads, construction, Elvis, Elvis Presley, frame, laneway, mini, paintings, racing cars, skyline, unicorn

In case you’ve been wondering where Elvis Presley has been hanging out, there’s an alley in the Dovercourt area that I’d like to show you!

Elvis is not alone! There are a few other bits and pieces stuck on the fence with him. It’s not great art but I hope that it at least makes you smile!

below: A little red bowtie, most debonair.

below: Mini racers

below: Chunky beads in a black frame, strung up and hanging out

below: Chilis?

below: Who doesn’t like a bashful little unicorn?

below: A street scene in front of a construction site.

below: An image of the back of a truck on the fence, with a real truck (or maybe a large yellow bin?) on that construction site.

revisiting Ontario Place

Posted: September 26, 2023 in construction, graffiti and street art, landmarks, locations, public art, transportation, waterfront
Tags: abandoned, Better Living Centre, CNE, construction, exhibition, fish, Food Building, GO Transit, Goh Ohn Bell, Horse Palace, Jose Andres Mora, Liberty Village, Metrolinx, Ontario Place, Queen Elizabeth Building, Raymond Moriyama, Ronald Satok, Toronto FC, Toronto Reds

A story in three parts

There has been a lot of talk about Ontario Place in the news lately so I thought that I would take some time to explore that part of the city.

below: My walk started in Liberty Village where I discovered that others are trying to promote walking around and exploring here. If you are interested, Walk Liberty is online. It is a fairly comprehensive guide to the history of the area.

below: Cut into the back of this bench are the words “Is it not the reason we are here”. This bench was designed by Jose Andres Mora was part of the Liberty Village BIA Artist Bench series from 2019. My reason? … Well, I was only passing by because it was a convenient place to have a cup of coffee before walking towards Ontario Place.

below: Comfortable shoes as we keep on walking

When I reached Atlantic Avenue I discovered that most of the south end of the street was now part of a construction site – both sides of the street have Metrolinx Ontario Line hoardings.

below: The Liberty Trail is closed. This sign was posted by Ontario Transit Group. They are the group who are building some of the infrastructure for the Ontario Line. There are a number of companies included in this group with the two leads being Ferrovial Construction Canada Inc., and VINCI Construction Grands Projects. They were awarded the six billion dollar contract in Nov 2022 and if you want to see a list of what that money should buy us, the information is on an Infrastructure Ontario website (while you’re there, spot the typo!).

below: Looking north on Atlantic Avenue

below: The Exhibition GO station is at the south end of Atlantic Ave. The new Ontario line will also have a station here. The ability to transfer between GO and TTC services here will impact a lot of people who commute from the western side of the GTA as they may be able to bypass Union Station.

below: From Exhibition station east towards the city centre, north side. A new street that parallels the railway tracks is being built here. If the plans are correct, the new street will connect Strachan Ave in the east with Dufferin St in the west.

below: Construction on the north side of the tracks at Exhibition station where a new concourse area is being built above the tracks

below: Looking eastward from the south side

After walking through the tunnel under the tracks at Exhibition GO station, you emerge under the Gardiner Expressway, right beside the Exhibition grounds. …. And so begins Part 2. A quick note – when Metrolinx describes Exhibition station on the Ontario Line, they usually add “Ontario Place” to it, i.e. it’s Exhibition/Ontario Place station.

The first building that you encounter on the south side is the Horse Palace

below: South entrance of the Horse Palace. Three levels of government contributed to the construction of this building which opened in 1931. It is two storeys high and covers 4 acres. Originally it accommodated 1200 horses. Today it is home to Toronto’s mounted police unit.

below: Horse in the art deco style, carved in the limestone facade of the Horse Palace.

In August it is busy here as it is the home of the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) but September is another story! I didn’t see many people as I wandered around. The buildings are locked up tight.

One of the dominant features of the area is BMO field which was built as a large soccer stadium. In 2016 it also became the home of the Toronto Argonauts, the other Toronto football team.

below: Mural above the entrance, gate 6 BMO Field. This mural can be difficult to see from outside because it is behind a window. It confused me at first because why is there a hockey themed picture at BMO field? – they don’t play hockey here. As I was trying to get a closer look at it from outside, a group of men walked past and one of them asked me if I needed help…. here’s the story: Once upon a time the Hockey Hall of Fame was here. When the building was demolished in 2006 to make way for the soccer field, portions of it were retained including the entrance and this mural, “Face Off” by Ronald Satok.

below: The Hockey Hall of Fame building (1961-1993) at the Exhibition. The mural is behind the glass in the entrance way.

below: Also at BMO Field is a Wall of Honour commemorating iconic moments and MLS Honours (e.g. coach of the year, MVP players, etc). Red and white are the colours of Toronto FC (Football Club) whose home is here at BMO stadium. Note: (MLS = Maple Leaf Sports, owners of the Toronto FC )

After WW2, the popularity of the CNE was booming and more modern spaces were needed. The Hockey Hall of Fame building was a great success so the Food Building (1954), followed by the Queen Elizabeth Building (1957), and the Better Living Centre (1962) resulted. These buildings still stand. All were very modern buildings for their time.

below: Food Building

below: Queen Elizabeth Building

below: Better Living Centre, symmetry of the side entrances. In the 1960s this building housed exhibits during the CNE that featured different rooms decorated with the latest trends and gadgets… like colour TVs! and other consumer goods.

below: Front entrance with its wide stairs leading to the doors as well as one of its curved walls

below: Artwork on the roof of the Better Living Centre is a three dimensional grid of steel with different coloured plexiglass panels in some of the squares.

We entered the Exhibition grounds by tunnel and we will leave by bridge over Lakeshore Blvd…. so to Part 3, Ontario Place

below: Looking west from the bridge over Lakeshore Blvd

Ontario Place consists of three different areas, East Island, West Island, and the pods in the middle. When Ontario Place first opened in 1971, the eastern portion was a children’s adventure playground. Today it is Trillium Park. I didn’t go there last week, but if you are interested, I blogged about it on two previous visits (a rainy day from June 2019, and Ontario Place 2.0 from July 2017)

The middle section of the park is where you find the “pods”, the elevated structures with water below, and the marina.

The contentious part at the moment is West Island.

As far as any plan can be trusted, this is from Infrastructure Ontario, dated April 2023. The majority of the West Island becomes covered with a 12 acre waterpark and spa to be built by an Austrian company, Therme. The majority of that is housed in glass buildings.

This is a conceptual drawing from Therme’s website. That’s a lot of glass. If you know West Island, you’ll realize that this drawing looks nothing like it. That’s because everything is to be removed, leveled, and a lot of landfill added.

Already gone is a bell, the Goh Ohn Bell. This is the Japanese Canadian Centennial Temple Bell. I took this picture on the 20th of Sept and by the 25th it was gone. Despite a protest on the weekend, it was removed to storage. The Temple Bell was installed in 1977 in a structure designed by Raymond Moriyama (1929 – Sept 2023); it was a gift to the province Japanese Canadians living in Ontario to mark the centennial of Japanese settlement in Canada. Now it is in the way of the Therme spa. Even though the project has not been approved, the provincial government is plowing ahead.

Some say that the West Island is under used now anyhow…..

Perhaps. But the biggest reason for that is the neglect (negligence actually) that it’s been subjected to over the years.

Once their were restaurants here but they closed years ago. Their ghosts remain.

below: Pizza anyone?

Once there were amusement rides here, those ghosts too still haunt the place.

below: Yellow lines to stand behind while you waited your turn for a ride.

Once upon a time there was some attempt to make something of the place. Then it was abandoned and ignored. In those quiet years the beach and paths were used by those who knew about them. It became a peaceful spot.

Unknowns – there are many because there has been nothing transparent about any of the dealings between Therme and the provincial government. Therme gets a 95 year lease but what are the terms? The provincial government is going to pay for an underground (under the water table!) parking lot for 2000+ cars apparently. They will also be responsible for all those little details that you can’t see – like where does the water go when you flush the toilet? – those little pesky things. Rather than go into more detail here, I highly recommend John Lorinc’s article in Spacing magazine, Below Grade Scandal

Not everyone is happy with the plans…..

a tale of two bridges

Posted: September 15, 2023 in construction, locations, old buildings, transportation
Tags: Canadian National Railway, CNR, construction, dump truck, Eastern Ave., GO Transit, Leslieville, Metrolinx, Ontario line, Queen St. East, Riverdale, Riverside, street, traffic, train, trucks, TTC

Traffic on Eastern Avenue near Broadview has faced construction and traffic delays over the past few months. The slow downs are ongoing as work on the railway bridge progresses. This work is because Metrolinx is adding tracks to make room for the new Ontario Line. Like many parts of the city, there are many changes occurring in the area.

Demolition on the north side of Eastern, and poof, gone, one large 5 storey Self Storage facility at 356 Eastern. Removed to make way for new tracks. The beige house faces Lewis Street.

… and now sitting gutted on the south side is another not old building (South side of Eastern Ave between Broadview and the railway tracks).

South side of Eastern, from another angle.

West side approach to the Canadian National Railway bridge

Along with the new railway line, Metrolinx is building what they are calling the East Harbour transit hub. This involves a new Ontario Line station as well as a new GO station on the Lakeshore East and Stouffville GO lines. Eventually, plans are to have TTC streetcars or LRT link here (it is directly south of Broadview and there is a plan to extend Broadview).

below: Construction along the railway line, south of Eastern Ave

below: One side (the east side) of the railway tracks has been demolished. Ultimately the whole bridge will be replaced but it is being done in stages to allow GO trains and VIA rail trains to continue running throughout the process.

A constant flow of dump trucks back and forth, in and out, of the construction site south of Eastern (on both sides of the railway tracks). The 38 acre site that includes the old Lever Bros (Ponds, Sunlight etc) soap factory is being redeveloped at the same time – it extends south to Lakeshore and west to the Don River.

Looking west on Eastern Ave, back towards downtown.

405 Eastern Ave, immediately east of the railway bridge, is also under construction. It has nothing to do with transportation as it is a new Enbridge building. A large 3 storey building with both offices and industrial (computers?) will probably be built here.

Makes sense, gas pipelines on site.

Just north of Eastern Ave, the railway tracks cross Queen St East., crossing over a bridge of the same style and vintage. Once upon a time this was a level crossing with a railway station on the northwest corner, the Riverdale station on the Grand Trunk Railway. This is soon to be the location of the Riverside Leslieville station on the not yet built Ontario Line.

So far the bridge is still intact but it too will be completely changed by the time Metrolinx is finished. The station itself will be on the bridge (if their drawings & plans are to be believed).

Here there will be 6 tracks – 4 for GO Transit and 2 for the Ontario Line.

Union Station and beyond

Posted: August 19, 2023 in construction, locations, people, public art, transportation
Tags: Bremner, construction, David Rokeby, John McEwen, Legends Row, Maple Leaf Square, Maple Leafs, Pixel Cube, Scotiabank Arena, signs, statues, Union station

Welcome back!

below: Posing with the men of Legends Row

below: The CN Tower peaks out from behind glass buildings on Bremner.

below: A slightly different angle, but still looking west on Bremner towards the Rogers Centre, which of course everyone still calls the SkyDome. The very east end of Bremner is also known as Raptors Way in celebration of the Toronto Raptors NBA Championship win in 2019 (that’s basketball for those of you who don’t follow such things).

below: Maple Leaf Square. The three rusted metal cones form “Search Light, Star Light, Spot Light” (1998) by John McEwen. At night, light shines through the thousand star shaped holes in the metal.

below: South entrance to Union Station.

below: More public art with lights can be seen in the foyer at 25 York Street (enter at Union Station in photo above and turn left). Thirty thousand lights suspended from the ceiling and they are constantly changing colour. This is David Rokeby’s “Pixel Cube”.

below: If you had turned right instead of left into 25 York, you would find yourself in the foyer of Scotiabank Arena, home of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Pictured, larger than life on the wall, are 90 Ryan O’Reilly, 16 Mitch Marner, and 88 William Nylander.

below: Russell Peters gives directions?

below: Although much of the Union Station renovation is complete, there are still mystery parts behind temporary walls and plastic barriers.

below: The walk from the railway side of the station to the TTC portion is now covered. No more dodging the elements!

below: Construction on Bay Street, immediately north of the railway tracks.

below: A typical day in downtown Toronto? Construction vehicles caught in the gridlock.

below: Intersection of Bay and Front (that truck is still there!).

below: At street level, something is happening with the gold tinted glass windows on the Royal Bank building. No opportunities to play with reflections in the angled glass walls. As an aside, if you want to discover how many plainclothes security people are lurking in the area, put your camera over the wall and aim it at the building. Then smile.

below: Heading north, Bay and Wellington

a quick check on Osgoode

Posted: August 6, 2023 in construction, locations
Tags: construction, cyclist, Metrolinx, Ontario line, Osgoode station, pedestrian, sidewalk, sidewalks, street, subway, traffic, transit, transportation, University Ave.

At the end of last year there was some controversy about removal of some of the trees from the park in front of Osgoode Hall to make way for Metrolinx and the new Ontario Line subway. (see post here – tree removal ).

Well, the trees did come down and subway construction has begun. The northbound lanes on University Ave north of Queen are closed and of course traffic chaos has ensued.

below: One entrance to Osgoode station on the southwest corner of Queen and University (looking north). On the Metrolinx website, the old building that now houses Rexall will become a new entrance to the subway. Or at least the facade of the building from 1929 is being retained. Before it was a Rexall drug store it was a CIBC branch.

below: Pedestrians crossing Queen Street, east side of University Ave (looking south)

below: The other entrance to Osgoode station is on the northeast corner of University and Queen. (Looking south in this photo.) A new entrance is planned for this location too except that it will be within the black wrought iron fence that surrounds Osgoode Hall. This frees up space on the busy sidewalk.

below: The bike lane on westbound Queen Street comes to an abrupt end and the corner is quite dangerous.

Walking north on University Avenue

below: Looking south on University from Armoury Street. This is the section of University that is closed to traffic.

below: University Club of Toronto, a Georgian building, with just one edge of the US Consulate General visible on the left side of the photo.

below: Weaving of traffic at Armoury Street (in front of the US Consulate General).

Finch West

Posted: July 21, 2023 in construction, public art, transportation
Tags: Brandon Vickerd, construction, Duke Heights, Finch Ave., Finch West station, LRT, Metrolinx, Norfinch, people, reflections, sidewalk, stations, transit, transportation, TTC

I have blogged a few times about the new Eglinton LRT/subway line that may or may not ever get finished in our life time. As well, I have shared some pictures of the construction that is the beginning of the work on the Ontario line through downtown. But apparently, that’s not all that Metrolinx is up to – I have heard rumours of another LRT line under construction in Toronto, the Finch West line. So I went to investigate.

below: Waiting on the platform at Finch West subway station.

Like so many transit projects in the city, the history of the Finch LRT has not followed a straight path. In 2009 the provincial government announced a new subway/LRT line along Finch from Don Mills to Humber College. But that promise was shortlived – the eastern end was removed a year later. Next, mayor Rob Ford cancelled the whole project after taking office at the end of 2010. City Council reinstated it (the western portion) in 2012 and construction was to begin in 2015 for a 2020 completion date. Work began a little later than planned but at least it actually started. The new LRT line goes from Finch West station at Keele to Humber College, 10.3 kilometres in total. It’s behind schedule but I don’t think that that surprises anyone.

My walking plan was to take a Finch bus westward along the new route and then walk back…. Traffic, of course, was horrible and by the time we got to hwy 400 I was ready to get off the bus. It didn’t help that they were repaving parts of Finch Avenue.

below: Like many plans, changes had to be made along the way since the sidewalk kept coming to an abrupt end….

below: .. and intersections weren’t always easy to navigate.

below: At the eastern end of the new LRT, on the east side of the intersection of Keele and Finch is a new public art installation. This steel structure is 40 feet high and represents Elia Public School which once stood at this intersection. It was designed by Brandon Vickerd. In the photo below, the building behind seems to be another Metrolinx building – that T symbol is on the new LRT stations as well.

below: Also at Keele and Finch – there are already two buildings to access the subway. It seems to suggest that TTC and Metrolinx have structures on three of the four corners of that intersection. Finch West station is on the section of Line 1 (Yonge-University) that opened late in 2017. Pictures from those days can be found at “to the end of the line”

below: Most of the LRT runs above ground. In order to provide easy access with the existing subway line, the LRT goes underground just west of Keele.