The Gardiner Expressway is undergoing emergency repairs after sections of decay were discovered that compromise the expressway\u2019s load-carrying capacity.<\/p>\n
Routine inspections revealed \u201csevere soffit deterioration\u201d at various points along the Gardiner, forcing the City of Toronto to issue a sole-source contract for over $4 million. <\/p>\n
This type of work would normally require competitive procurements and council approval, but city staff say\u00a0it was rushed because it was such an emergency.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Gardiner is old. We are rebuilding it, we\u2019re fixing it,\u201d said Mayor Olivia Chow. \u201cBoth above and below, it needs major work.\u201d<\/p>\n
The state of the Gardiner was only made worse by this winter\u2019s weather.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen we add a lot of salt on the road to clear up the snow, melt the snow, that is very dangerous for reinforced concrete structures. The steel will corrode, the concrete will deteriorate and the damage can be accelerated quite quickly,\u201d said Shamim Sheikh, a civil engineering professor at the University of Toronto. <\/p>\n
Toronto began the emergency repairs in November in an effort to complete the work before the FIFA World Cup this summer. <\/p>\n
The tournament is expected to bring heavy traffic on top of the Gardiner Expressway and tens of thousands of fans right underneath it, gathering for the Fan Festival at Fort York and the Bentway.<\/p>\n
Engineering experts say the concerns over safety here are valid.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you have taken care of the falling debris and all the repair work has been done then it\u2019s safe to go there, but if we ignore that, then obviously there is a risk,\u201d said Sheikh.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it needs to be fixed it\u2019ll be 24\/7 and we\u2019ll rush ahead and do it before the FIFA World Cup \u2026 and then after FIFA World Cup, we will be back again,\u201d added Chow.<\/p>\n
The biggest stretch of deterioration is between Grand Magazine, York and Cherry Streets to the Don Valley Parkway.<\/p>\n
The City\u2019s chief engineer tells CityNews about 80 per cent of the repairs have been completed already and work should finish up in April.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Gardiner Expressway is undergoing emergency repairs after sections of decay were discovered that compromise the expressway\u2019s load-carrying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,3302],"class_list":["post-511366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}