An early crowd of about 300 wandered along the parade of placards on tripods at the Metrolinx information meeting held Tuesday night in the William Lea Room at Leaside Gardens. The meeting was sponsored by John Parker (Ward 26) though it appeared to be a fairly standard Metrolinx meeting, much like the kind held elsewhere in the vicinity of South Bayview. Residents came to marvel and argue about the transit project known as the Eglinton Crosstown Light Rapid Transit. There were instructional cards on the pace of work, cutaway views of the stations at Bayview and Laird and point by point explanations of how Metrolinx will try to help us cope during the forthcoming mess. One catchy bullet-point from the provincial transit authority was that tunnel boring from Brentcliffe Rd. to Yonge Street will be completed by 2016. A few people thought this was nonsense but in fact it doesn’t seem too unlikely. The joker in the pack, as some might say, will be the station construction at Bayview and Laird (and Mt. Pleasant by the way). These structures will stretch hundreds of feet both above and below ground. It will be necessary to “cut and cover” everything built below ground at these sites. It is a process that will frequently bring traffic and commerce to a dead halt through these intersections. It was ever thus in such construction. As has been noted elsewhere in the Bulldog, the Bayview stop will have a main station on the site of the McDonald’s on the southeast corner. A second entrance will be built in the Metro parking lot. In a reversal from early planning, there will be no entrance from Sunnybrook Plaza. This change may reflect the desire of the plaza’s owner, Rio.Can, to keep its re-development options open for this corner. At Laird, both stations, west and east of Laird, will be on the south side. The main entrance will be on the southwest corner where the small strip mall housing the Great Canadian Bagel now sits. A secondary entrance will be built to the east of the Pier One building in the parking lot of Rio.Can’s Leaside Shopping Centre. Tunnels from Brentcliffe to Yonge done by 2016
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An early crowd of about 300 wandered along the parade of placards on tripods at the Metrolinx information meeting held Tuesday night in the William Lea Room at Leaside Gardens. The meeting was sponsored by John Parker (Ward 26) though it appeared to be a fairly standard Metrolinx meeting, much like the kind held elsewhere in the vicinity of South Bayview. Residents came to marvel and argue about the transit project known as the Eglinton Crosstown Light Rapid Transit. There were instructional cards on the pace of work, cutaway views of the stations at Bayview and Laird and point by point explanations of how Metrolinx will try to help us cope during the forthcoming mess. One catchy bullet-point from the provincial transit authority was that tunnel boring from Brentcliffe Rd. to Yonge Street will be completed by 2016. A few people thought this was nonsense but in fact it doesn’t seem too unlikely. The joker in the pack, as some might say, will be the station construction at Bayview and Laird (and Mt. Pleasant by the way). These structures will stretch hundreds of feet both above and below ground. It will be necessary to “cut and cover” everything built below ground at these sites. It is a process that will frequently bring traffic and commerce to a dead halt through these intersections. It was ever thus in such construction. As has been noted elsewhere in the Bulldog, the Bayview stop will have a main station on the site of the McDonald’s on the southeast corner. A second entrance will be built in the Metro parking lot. In a reversal from early planning, there will be no entrance from Sunnybrook Plaza. This change may reflect the desire of the plaza’s owner, Rio.Can, to keep its re-development options open for this corner. At Laird, both stations, west and east of Laird, will be on the south side. The main entrance will be on the southwest corner where the small strip mall housing the Great Canadian Bagel now sits. A secondary entrance will be built to the east of the Pier One building in the parking lot of Rio.Can’s Leaside Shopping Centre. 