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Gardiner takedown study approved by budget committee

Read More: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toront...ssment635.html

Toronto council's budget committee has voted in favour of restarting a shelved environmental assessment of the possible dismantling of an eastern portion of the Gardiner Expressway.

Coun. Mike Del Grande, the chair of the city's budget committee, introduced the motion Tuesday to take up the study into tearing down a stretch of the highway east of Jarvis Street. The original environmental assessment was abandoned in 2011. "How much money do you spend on it without really analyzing or understanding whether it should stay up, should it stay down, should it be repaired, what should be done?" said Del Grande, who personally favours keeping the stretch of expressway intact. "But to do nothing would be criminal."

The study would examine several options for the "takedown" of the Gardiner, a partially-elevated highway that was completed in 1965 and carries up to 200,000 vehicles per weekday. Staff estimate it would be six to nine years before dismantling can commence. The committee voted in favour of the move to study options for the aging expressway amid heightened concerns about its safety and usability. A final vote in council is required before the study can be started.

City staff said as recently as December that the eastern portion of the expressway may not be fit for use within six years if repairs aren't carried out on the road surface. Just keeping it operational in that time would cost at least $30 million to $35 million, not including additional millions for reinforcing the roadway. Moreover, the city has proposed spending an additional $505 million in repairs over the next 10 years to keep the Gardiner in good repair.

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