The Gardiner Expressway may be in worse condition than we’ve been led to believe.  According to City of Toronto documents released to at least two media outlets, there have been hundreds of issues with the elevated portion of the Gardiner Expressway between 2009 and 2012.  Inspection reports and emails frequently highlight the need for “emergency removal” of loose concrete.  There is also the mention of the possibility of a “punch through” in two separate locations of the bridge deck.  This means a heavy vehicle could crack a hole right through the bridge portion of the Expressway.  One concrete restoration engineer says its very unlikely an entire car would fall through to Lake Shore Boulevard,  but its enough to have a large piece of concrete fall down onto the area below.

City Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong is the Chair of the City’s Public Works and Infrastructure Committee.  As recently as last week, he revealed that spending on repairs to the Gardiner has been much less than the original plan.  “The numbers that we’ve got show the Gardiner Expressway has been starved and neglected for a number of years.”  But he couldn’t say why this is the case.  “So far there’s no explanation for the under spending.  Staff aren’t clear why this has happened.”

Two separate reports indicate repairs are much needed near the intersection with Fort York Boulevard, and another on the other end of the elevated expressway west of Cherry Street.