In The News: The Deteriorating Gardiner Expressway Is Not Toronto’s First Highway Controversy

The deterioration of Toronto’s Gardiner Expressway has become a growing political debate for city officials.  Recently, it was brought to city council’s attention that the structure is less secure than was initially communicated.  The Globe and Mail reported that a public meeting was held on October16 at the Toronto Reference Library to present possible solutions to fixing the highway’s poor infrastructure and to listen to feedback from Toronto citizens.

The City of Toronto, in collaboration with Waterfront Toronto, has resurrected architectural plans that were commissioned in 2009.  Some designs suggest an elevating of the current structure, while others promote demolishing the Gardiner and implementing an underground tunnel.  However, these are options that come at higher costs.  Redesigning the stretch from Jarvis to the Don Valley Parkway would cost the city close to $1 billion.  Other options presented were

• Maintaining the current structure, which would cost $235 million
• Improving the streetscape, which would consist of eliminating two highway lanes and introducing a bike lane; and
• Removing the Gardiner entirely in exchange for a new boulevard with nine traffic lanes.

The high volumes of traffic that utilize the Gardiner on a daily basis leads many citizens to be opposed to removing two lanes of traffic, while the opinion on removing the structure completely were almost equally divided.

The politicization of urban planning is a recurring issue in Toronto’s history.  The Canadian Historical Review’s article “Modernism at a Crossroad: The Spadina Expressway Controversy in Toronto, ON  ca. 1960 – 1971” by Danielle Robinson recounts the citizen protest of a proposed expressway running through the heart of the city.  Similar to a couple of options currently under consideration for the Gardiner, the negative reaction to the Spadina Expressway aimed to safeguard the urban environment by preserving communities, preventing environmental degradation, and promoting public transit.  During this time, The Gardiner Expressway was already under construction, and while the public was able to prevent the building of the Spadina Expressway, their efforts could not prevent the Gardiner extension in the late 1990s.   Check out Danielle Robinson’s article to compare the similarities between both expressway controversies.  What do you propose is the ideal option? Tweet us your opinion @utpjournals or using the hashtag #gardinerexpressway