A report by Toronto's waterfront agency urges the city to tear down part of the Gardiner Expressway before it's too late.

After nearly two years under wraps, the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation report released on Wednesday details a number of options for the aging roadway.

The Gardiner Expressway connects the suburbs west of the city to downtown Toronto.
(CBC)

To build a better city for the future, the report calls for the city to dismantle the 4½-kilometre stretch of the elevated expressway from the Don Valley Parkway to Spadina Avenue and expand Lake Shore Boulevard to 10 lanes.

That would cost more than $758 million.

And getting rid of a section of the Gardiner would lengthen average commuter times by only a few minutes, said John Campbell, the CEO and president of the corporation that wrote the report.

About 180,000 vehicle trips are made on the busy roadway every day.
(CBC)

Development could limit options

But Campbell warns that time is running out and is urging the city to make a decision by spring.

The longer the city delays making a decision about the Gardiner, the more limited the city's options will be.

With the swath of condominiums popping up close to the Gardiner and land development happening so quickly, he believes that in a few years there may not be any physical room left to get rid of the Gardiner and build a widened Lake Shore Boulevard.

Campbell says the choice is simple: do you want a city that caters to the car or a city that caters to people and communities?

In return for scrapping part of the Gardiner, he says the people of Toronto would benefit from a boulevard lined with shops and parks and access to the lake in a spot that is now derelict land with an outdated, crumbling expressway above it.

Other variations

The report goes on to suggest variations of the favoured option of tearing the central part of the Gardiner down.

One addresses the entire stretch of waterfront by recommending that an underground roadway also be built west of Spadina at a cost of up to $1.15 billion.

A less expensive variation suggests a continuous eight-lane Lake Shore Boulevard stretching from Jameson Avenue to the Don River at a cost of $460 million.

But the report maintains that partially tearing down the Gardiner will significantly improve the quality of the area and is a less costly option than other variations.

Costs of other options

The other options outlined in the document include doing nothing, replacing the Gardiner or transforming the area by moving Lake Shore Boulevard.

The report estimates that simply leaving the Gardiner the way it is could cost $10-12 million in maintenance and repairs every year.

Replacing it with a four-lane underground road east of Front Street and an aboveground four-lane road along Lake Shore Boulevard between Jarvis and Cherry is another option. That would cost around $1.4 billion.

Another option recommends transforming the area by dismantling some of the expressway's ramps, then relocating Lake Shore Boulevard from underneath and encourage building below the Gardiner.

It would make the area more pedestrian friendly, the report says, and cost up to $515 million.

A major election issue

The report on the future of the controversial expressway had been kept under wraps for two years because city staff said financial details were not ready.

Under increased pressure to release the document before the upcoming municipal election on Nov. 13, city councillors voted Monday to make it public.

Mayor David Miller has expressed support for tearing down part of the Gardiner from Yonge Street to the Don Valley Parkway, but says there's no money to do that.

Mayoral candidate Jane Pitfield said she wants the expressway to stay intact and plans to make the Gardiner's future a major election issue.