Urban Neighbourhood: Toronto Waterfront Viaduct

Sweeping elevated highways and expressways are reminders of the modernist era with its dreams of speedy transportation from area to area on elevated right of ways. Le Corbusier and the modern movement glorified automobiles and gave them their own monumental structures upon which to travel so as not to be encumbered by the minor cross streets and other obstacles below. The modernist movement and Le Corbusier himself have in the years following been criticized for their legacy and these elevated freeways and expressways have gone from being glorious examples of the industrial prowess of man to giant eye sores and physiological barriers pretty much universally disliked by all and expensive to maintain. Toronto and Montreal both have extensive elevated systems and both are experiencing major structural issues. In Toronto there has been much debate over what to do about the Gardiner Expressway as many feel that it is a barrier to the successful redevelopment of the waterfront and no longer able to meet the demands placed upon it in terms of carrying capacity. There have been many proposals to deal with the issue of the Gardiner, however, due to both the prohibitive price tags and the question of what to do with existing traffic while these proposals are carried out has stalled the process.

Jose Gutierrez of Seneca College has come up with a new idea the Toronto Waterfront Viaduct, first the idea of a 6km long cable stayed bridge seems ridiculous, however on further consideration it has some advantages that outweigh other proposals; its aesthetic appeal, the freeing up of land currently occupied by the expressway, and lack of interference with the existing expressway while under construction. Its 1.65 billion dollar price tag is also comparable with other proposals for the expressway.

“I thought about utilizing the existing Lakeshore rail corridor, and merging the Expressway and the rail tracks into one major transportation corridor,” Gutierrez says. “The cable-stayed idea came from the need to provide as few obstacles as possible for train movement and street level traffic (either pedestrian, bicycles, transit or car traffic).” source

Gutierrez's proposal has simply the basic plan for the elevated viaduct and also add ons that could be used to either increase the diversity of uses for the viaduct or even offset the cost of building it. I find the proposal very exciting and it has the potential to integrate well into other projects such as the union station redevelopment and assorted waterfront projects.

Click here to see his proposal in depth.