(Update: more information on transporting the bridges and the Cherry Street Bridges.)
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| Janey Anderson posted TODAY'S 2021 HOT PIC GOES TO DAVE YAGER TRANSITING BEAUHARNOIS LOCK ON MCKEIL TUG LOIS M. All the Toronto bridges coming from Halifax brought excitement to the Seaway, but the second one with Captain Dave Yager on the lead tug Lois M. was a real crowd favourite. He says he "never minds honking for kids or Junkies". And the fun thing about Dave is, we never know what McKeip ship or tug he'll be on next! Cheers Dave - thanks for all the good times in 2021! We welcome your 2021 pictures of the Toronto bridges in transit! |
Before discussing why there is a bridge in a lock, I need to provide some background information about a waterfront project in Toronto that requires four new bridges. Toronto is putting a river back into its waterfront to reduce flooding and to turn an "underused" industrial area into "25 hectares of publicly accessible greenspace and parkland." [PL-about] The best way to understand the project is to look at before and after images. Unfortunately, the east/west dimensions of their map don't match the satellite image so I can't get an exact comparison. But you can see the new kilometer-long river valley with a new mouth for the Don River that is going to be dug between the Keating and Ship Channels. As part of the project, they are building a new Cherry Street west of the existing street.
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| Satellite, before |
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| Map, after |
Their spin on the cost is that it "will contribute over $4 billion to the Canadian economy." [PL-why]
This image finally helped me understand why they would dig a river. The parkland is a side-effect of the development. More prime real-estate near downtown is the real reason. They want to create a flood-free Villers Island for a bigger downtown. This image also shows the four new bridges that are needed to provide access to the new Villers Island.
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| PL-why, thumbnail |
It is a little disconcerting that the same web site has different images of what the new river should look like. Since this plan would require five bridges, it must be an obsolete plan.
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| PL-details, thumbnail |
An even more recent diagram has only three crossings to the island.
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| Details via PortLandsTo |
The Jan 2022 satellite image still has the old trunnion lift bridge, but some photos of the replacement bridge have been uploaded.
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| Satellite |
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| Safwat Ghabbour, May 2021 |
But they are still building the new Cherry Street so the old trunnion bridge is still being used.
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| Android Dave, Aug 2019 |
Janey Anderson posted three photos with the comment:
More News for Opening Day - McKeil Spirit is delayed leaving Toronto due to a problem with the bridge.She's been laid up at Leigh cement in since 28.02.22 and expected to leave for Picton possibly Friday as long as the parts for the bridge arrive - TBC.The Cherry Street Strauss Trunnion Bascule Bridge is located in the Port Lands and carries Cherry Street over the Toronto Harbour Ship Channel. It has to open to allow ships to access the channel and the turning basin beyond.The bridge was built in 1930 by the company of Joseph Strauss and the Dominion Bridge Company. The north side of the bridge has 750-ton concrete counterweights that allow the bridge to pivot to open.The city spent CA$2.5 million to refurbish the bridge in 2007. The Toronto Port Authority made further repairs from December 2012 to September 2013 at a cost of CA$2 million.22.03.22
Leslieann Lafosse: Where are those new sections that sailed up from Dartmouth going, is it not down around there somewhere?
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| Dennis DeBruler replied to Leslieann's question One of the four bridges will replace this one and another will carry Cherry Avenue across the new river that they plan to dig. https://portlandsto.ca/why-this-matters/ I'm wondering what is going to happen to the cement facility. |
This photo of the new bridge from the old bridge shows that it is still up on its jacks after it was floated into place.
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| Alex Dunn, Nov 2020 |
June 11, 2022:
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| Janey Anderson posted Tonight I snapped a pic of the very first Cherry Street North LRT bridge for the new $1.25 billion Villiers Island project in Toronto, which arrived from Halifax in Feb. 2021 Another one is in its way soon. The bridge will come via tug Beverly M1 and barge Glovertown Sprit in a few weeks. This is the Cherry Street Bridge "Center" span. The Cherry Street bridge was delivered in 3 pieces. Stay tuned for updates. Annabelle Né: It was exciting to see it going through the locks. Thanks for showing us what it looks like once in place Janey! |
A snapshot when only one of the four bridges has been installed, but they have made good progress on the new river channel.
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| WaterfrontToronto |
It looks like the southern part of the Port Lands including the Port of Toronto will still be available for industrial work.
Janey Anderson posted five photos with the comment: "Tug Radium Yellowknife with Coastal Titan barge offloading huge transformers (using both cranes) from Sloman Discoverer at Port of Toronto and taking to base of CN Tower (powering Toronto). Photos taken by Jeff Harding on RY tug. 06.10.22"
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Some photos my daughter took while riding through Toronto in July 2022 because she knows that I'm interested in bridges and these struck her as special.
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Feb 5, 2024: Janey Anderson posted two photos with the comment: "Homecoming of the new Toronto bridge brought by tugs BEVERLY M1 & MOLLY M1."
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| 1 Janey Anderson posted with the comment: Let's play bridge!! A bridge going under a bridge? The homecoming of the new Toronto bridge brought by tugs BEVERLY M1 & MOLLY M1 on Glovertown Spirit barge. Aug 28/21 |
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3:51 video about the four bridges
5:20 video updating the construction in 2021
3:51 video May 2022 update
The photos concerning the transport of the fourth bridge to Toronto have been moved to here.
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| safe_image for 3:24 video IF YOU WATCHED THE TORONTO BRIDGES TRANSIT THE SEAWAY TO TORONTO YOU MAY BE INTERESTED TO KNOW THAT THEY ARE NOW OFFICIALLY ALL OPEN TO THE PUBLIC See progress on the river valley that will become the new mouth of the Don River! Since the last construction update, we opened two new roads: New Cherry Street and Commissioners Street, which you can see in this video. We also flooded the river! You can see work happening on the future parks, including the foundations for new playground structures. A BIT OF BACKGROUND ON THESE BRIDGES - The first of the two Cherry North bridges left Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, for Toronto on Oct. 29, 2020 and arrived in the city 10 days later on Nov. 7, 2020. The second made it here in July 2022. The orange-and-white Commissioners Street bridge was shipped to Toronto in two parts in 2021. The first half, which weighs 650 tonnes and is 83 metres long, arrived in May, while the 560-tonne, 69-metre-long second section made it to the city at the end of August 2021. It connects the new Villiers Island to the rest of the Port Lands. The new bridges that opened today are part of a family of four new bridges that have been installed as part of the $1.25-billion Port Lands Flood Protection project, which will take roughly 715 acres out of the city’s floodplain through the re-naturalization of the mouth of the Don River between the Ship and Keating channels. Designed and engineered by Entuitive, Grimshaw and Schlaich Bergermann and fabricated by Halifax-based Cherubini Metal Works, the crossings were all assembled in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia and shipped to Toronto on barges through the St. Lawrence Seaway. In total, the bridges cost $100 million. The fourth bridge, which is yellow-and-white and weighs 830 tonnes and measures 110 metres long, crosses a newly created river at the south end of Cherry Street. This bridge arrived in Toronto in December 2021 and has been open since the fall of 2022. “(These new bridges) going to have a massive impact. (They) are part of a larger construction project, a huge project the aim of which is primarily to protect a massive part of the eastern waterfront from flooding from the Don River in the event of a major storm,” Mira Shenker, Waterfront Toronto’s director of communications, told CP24. “So these bridges will now connect folks from downtown to the future Villiers Island, which is a future community that is created by the extension of the Don River through the Port Lands and the naturalization of the river mouth, which is all part of this same project.” Shenker went on to say that protecting the eastern portion of downtown Toronto from significant flooding, like what Hurricane Hazel caused in 1954 at the Humber and Don rivers, is part of creating a more resilient city and is critical to the growth of Toronto’s eastern waterfront. In tandem with the opening of the new bridges, Waterfront Toronto also marked the opening of two new roadways today: the new alignment of Cherry Street between Lake Shore Boulevard and Commissioners Street, and the rebuilt Commissioners Street between Cherry and Saulter Streets. March 1 - 2024 [They claim the reason for spending $1.25b is flood control. I'll bet the primary reason is to convert a lot of industrial land into more "downtown" (office, business and residential) land. Getting flood control and some parks is a bonus.] |
Feb 2024:
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| 3:24 video |
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