Item - 2014.PW29.2

This report seeks Council approval to proceed with "Remove" as the preferred alternative solution for the Gardiner Expressway and Lake Shore Boulevard East Reconfiguration Environmental Assessment (EA) and Integrated Urban Design Study (Gardiner East EA). An extensive consultation program and technical assessment of alternatives has found that the Remove option for the Gardiner East best meets the transportation and infrastructure, urban design, economics and environment objectives of the EA study.

The Gardiner East EA study area includes the 2.4-kilometre elevated segment from approximately Lower Jarvis Street to Logan Avenue. A timely decision on the future of this portion of the Gardiner is needed. The structure is more than 50 years old and requires significant public investment, regardless of whether Council decides to have it removed, maintained, improved or replaced. The study team is reporting to Council at this critical juncture to seek direction to proceed with developing detailed EA plans and final recommendations prior to reporting back in 2015.

In 2012, incidents of falling concrete occurred in the Jarvis Street east section of the Gardiner as well as in western segments. Council authorized a series of interim repairs in 2013 to maintain the area in a safe and operable condition, delaying full reconstruction of the easterly deck to 2020, pending completion of the EA. The City's approved $662.7 million 13-Year Budget (2013 to 2025) for rehabilitating the 18-kilometre Gardiner Expressway includes reconstruction of the Jarvis east portion, which forms the "base case" for the Maintain option in the EA. A report on an accelerated rehabilitation approach for the entire stretch of the Gardiner Expressway is the subject of a separate report to this Committee. 

The EA Terms of Reference are based on the City's Official Plan and Central Waterfront Secondary Plan policies to revitalize the waterfront and reconnect it to the City, balance modes of travel, achieve sustainability and create value. The EA study has been carried out in full consultation with the community and stakeholders under the direction of a joint City of Toronto and Waterfront Toronto Executive Steering Committee.

Assessment of EA Options

This report summarizes the nine-month process for the development, refinement and assessment of four representative EA options for the Gardiner East that led to the preferred EA recommendation of Remove. The four representative EA options were:

1.         Maintain under the City's committed rehabilitation program (i.e., "do nothing");

2.         Improve the transportation and urban design features of the corridor;

3.         Replace with a new expressway structure; and

4.         Remove the elevated expressway east of Jarvis Street and upgrade Lake Shore Boulevard as an eight-lane boulevard with a new connection to the Don Valley Parkway.

Using 16 criteria groups that summarized 60 measures, the Maintain, Improve, Replace and Remove options were screened against four evaluation lenses: transportation and infrastructure, economics, urban design and environment. The measures were not weighted as both quantitative and qualitative data were collected and assessed by consultants and staff from various disciplines. Each option was compared against the measures, then against each other, until a preferred alternative – Remove – emerged as the best means of meeting the EA study goals and objectives set out in the Terms of Reference approved by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment.

Figure 1 – Don River and Keating Channel Looking North

(Figure 1 "Existing (Maintain and Improve)" and "Remove" - Please refer to staff report page 2)

Key features of the Remove preferred EA alternative are:

Removal of the six-lane elevated Gardiner Expressway from Jarvis Street east;

-           Widening of Lake Shore Boulevard east of Jarvis Street by two lanes into an eight-lane landscaped at-grade boulevard;

-           The lowest overall public investment at $240 million net present value (NPV) because of significantly lower lifecycle costs despite a higher upfront capital cost than Maintain;

-           Public land disposition proceeds of approximately $80 to 90 million NPV from the release of about 4 hectares of land (which could support 260,000 square metres of development)

-           Highest compatibility with Official Plan and Central Waterfront Secondary Plan principles and objectives as well as approved plans, such as the Don Mouth Naturalization and Flood Protection EA, Lower Don Lands Framework Plan, Keating Channel Precinct Plan and the Port Lands Acceleration Initiative.

However, as discussed in Section 3.3 of this report, the Remove option was also estimated to increase travel times of some corridor trips by 5 to 10 minutes longer than the future 2031 Maintain condition (itself an additional 5 minutes over today's condition).

If endorsed by Council, Remove would be subject to further development and assessment in the alternative design stage of the EA. The design stage will look at mitigation and impact management to address travel times, traffic flow and signal timing, as well as possibilities for accelerating demolition and construction to minimize disruption to travellers. Other design stage issues would include public realm improvements, the definition of development parcels, traffic management, construction staging, ramp design and intersection configuration. A detailed financing strategy would be prepared. In 2015, the public, Committee and Council would consider the final design and detailed financial implications for Remove along with the EA Report, prior to submission to the Minister of the Environment. 

Deferral of a decision on the future of the Gardiner Expressway East is not recommended given the interim nature of repairs and the uncertain duration of the EA approvals process in a project of this complexity. Should Council approve the Maintain or "do nothing" alternative, staff would consult with the MOE on withdrawing from the current EA process. Full deck rehabilitation between Jarvis Street and the DVP would be undertaken as scheduled from 2020 to 2025, or earlier if an accelerated model of rehabilitation is adopted.

Information about the Gardiner East EA, including summaries of public forums, can be found on the project web site at www.gardinereast.ca.