Bridge from NS installed in Toronto for waterfront project

Nov 19, 2020

the first of the four bridges ready for installation in Toronto Harbour Richard Evans photo

Toronto Harbour and the Don River are in the midst of a historical project to reconfigure the mouth of the Don. Early last week Toronto sailor Richard Evans sent along a photo of a sleek new bridge that was about to be installed as part of the construction of the Port Lands on Toronto’s east side. This is a massive project that will re-route the Don River’s exit into Lake Ontario, create massive parks. The new river valley will be on average 100 metres wide. It will cut a kilometre-long path along Don Roadway and west across Cherry Street, ending in a new, renaturalized river mouth.

The Cherry St Keating Channel road bridge in place – Richard Evans photo

By the end of the week, Richard sent along another shot of the bridge now set in place over the Keating Channel on Cherry Street This bridge is for pedestrians, bikes and cars. A second bridge at the same stretch – there are four new bridges in total – will be installed beside it for transit. The other two bridges will be as indicated on the map below; One will become the Cherry St. South Bridge – it will cross the new mouth of the Don River, over what is currently Polson Slip. The Commissioners Street Bridge will cross the new river valley, between Munition Street and Don Roadway. The map below shows the position

These four new bridges will soon connect downtown Toronto to the future Villiers Island, the new island that will be created by extending the Don River through the Port Lands. The first left Dartmouth, Nova Scotia on October 29th, 2020 arriving in Toronto in early November via the St. Lawrence Seaway. A blog that explores the bridges and the project are here.

To help get the picture of what is being created here, Richard also forwarded the video of a drone flight over the project. Be prepared – this is a huge project and you may need to watch more than once to get oriented. 

-JM