as I walk Toronto

… and meanderings.

The original plan was to find a good place to find out how far the Ontario line construction has progressed on the portion of the line that crosses the Don Valley Parkway.

A quick reminder – this is a photo (lifted from the Metrolinx website) of the bridge in question.  The bridge in the background is the Millwood Bridge.  On the north side of the bridge will be the Thorncliffe station on Overlea Blvd.  Immediately after the southbound trains cross the Don Valley Parkway, they enter the Minton Place tunnel which is at the north end of Pape Ave.  The rest of the journey is underground.   [One problem with this image – when is the traffic this light on the DVP?  Like, never. Certainly not during the day.]

Our starting point was a Crothers Woods trail,  specifically at the trail head behind Loblaws.  There is a plaque here to honour Thomas Hauser.

There is also a sign that warns against walking the trail if it is muddy.  Yes, it was muddy but that didn’t stop us… at first.  The trail takes you downhill to river level.  Just before going down, there were a lot of sirens, police cars and fire trucks, on Redway Road.   This is the road that seemingly ends at Loblaws, but actually goes downhill and then runs parallel to the train tracks by the Don River (apparently it is also home to the longest staircase in the city, 194 steps, but we missed that).

There are a few signs of spring in Crothers Woods these days but in general it’s still rather grey.

below: Trilliums

below: Yellow Trout Lilies (Erythronium americanum), also known as dog-tooth violets, with it’s droopy flowers and mottled leaves.

below: It almost looks like string art but it’s actually the remains of a fungus, Armillaria root rot (Armillaria mellea), a parasitic fungus that grows under the bark of trees.  It is found in soil and can attack trees (especially unhealthy ones) starting from the roots.  It grows upwards, invisible, until it chokes the tree and the tree dies.

Rather than dodging puddles and trying not to slip in the mud, we retraced our steps.  At the moment, no pedestrians are allowed on the Redway Road hill but that seemed like a better route to try…..

below: Bottom of the hill, Redway Road

… And there we found the construction site.  But we also found a GO train that was stopped on the tracks (hence all the sirens).   Unfortunately someone was hit by the northbound train and died at the scene.  At this point, 5 days later, I haven’t been able to find any information beyond that.

Construction pictures:

below: The buildings on the left are at Overlea and Millwood.   The Ontario Line is elevated as it parallels Overlea Blvd (where the Thorncliffe station will be).  It then crosses Millwood which is where the new bridge begins.  The white (erosion protection?) covers the hill that is part of the support for the elevated tracks.  I wonder if construction is impacted by the transmission lines running to and from the Leaside Transmission Station (also at Overlea and Millwood)?

below: Partially completed concrete support between the railway and the river.  The men in the white pickup truck have the job of making sure that it is safe to cross the tracks.

below: The concrete support in the photo above is now on the far left.  The details aren’t easy to spot but the white horizontal lines on the far right mark the site of the Minton tunnel.  Between the partially finished support and the tunnel are both the Don River and the Don Valley Parkway.  Trains will pass over the traffic on the DVP.