Thursfield Crescent Residents Distraught but Not Completely Surprised By Crosstown Construction Earth Collapse behind Their Homes
NEWS PROVIDED BY
Thursfield Crescent Residents
October 24, 2020
Toronto, ON, October 24, 2020 — On the afternoon of October 21, 2020 during the excavation of the ravine slope at the Crosstown Brentcliffe Portal Retaining Wall Construction Project, soil collapsed resulting in cavernous void and unstable ground for several homes on Thursfield Crescent. Kevin Chan who lives at one of the affected properties said “if our safety was at risk then I wish someone would have told us (sooner), but thankfully it seems like no one’s gotten hurt”, after Crosslinx took almost 3 hours to notify Thursfield Crescent residents of this “earth movement”. Residents have been asked to refrain from entering their backyards “as an abundance of caution”. The rear of three resident’s backyards are currently cordoned off until further updates are provided by Crosslinx.
While spokespeople from Crosslinx would have you believe that this was a surprising and unfortunate incident, it was precisely what residents on Thursfield Crescent had feared and had been cautioning Crosslinx about since March, when, with only 10 days’ notice, Crosslinx began clear-cutting 274 trees that had maintained the stability of the ravine slope for decades. Residents of Thursfield Crescent pleaded with Metrolinx and Crosslinx on numerous occasions not to remove the 274 trees to maintain the integrity and beauty of the ravine slope. “Removing all those trees, it doesn’t take an engineer to know there’s going to be substantial erosion,” Chan said. Residents of Thursfield Crescent requested modifications to the retaining wall design to maintain the integrity of the ravine slope. On the day of excavation, Thursfield Crescent residents begged Crosslinx not to excavate so closely to the affected private properties to maintain the integrity of the slope. Sadly, to no avail. Now all of the trees have been clear-cut and the integrity of the ravine slope has been severely compromised.
In one conversation between Carlos Hernandez at Metrolinx and Thursfield resident, Elena Valentino, she was told that the loss of the trees would be far outweighed by the increase in value to her home due to the Crosstown LRT. Ms. Valentino said, “There is no price that you can put on your view or on the safety of your private property.” Within weeks after the trees were removed, the rear fence of one of the Thursfield properties was severely defaced with graffiti. Residents at The Scenic Condominiums informed the owners and commented how the unsightly graffiti and loss of trees has negatively impacted their views. Crosslinx has agreed to remove this graffiti but currently, the proximity of excavation to the fence is so close that the site has been deemed unsafe for this removal to occur.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, in the middle of March, residents of 89 – 101 Thursfield Crescent successfully halted the clear-cutting of these trees until Metrolinx and Crosslinx were able to provide some clarity on the project and assurances that this project would not affect their private property. While Crosslinx received a permit from the City of Toronto, Urban Forestry, for removal of these ravine trees, Crosslinx did not provide a finalized restoration plan. A restoration plan is a requirement of The City of Toronto, Urban Forestry, in any other instance for receiving a permit for the destruction of ravine trees. The residents of Thursfield Crescent have since been informed that Crosslinx intends to plant shrubs rather than replant canopy trees, as the selected Retaining Wall System with geogrid and the slope would not allow planting of trees. This is something that most likely would have been known from the time of submitting the permit request for ravine tree destruction, but presumably Crosslinx left out this critical information in an effort to push the project through as quickly as possible in the middle of a pandemic when Urban Forestry was unable to conduct site visits. Crosslinx also left out the stress and root damage to existing mature private property trees which has affected three residences.
Although residents were told that alternate retaining wall systems were considered, according to the Metrolinx Construction Update to Thursfield Crescent residents on April 7, 2020, they opted for a Mechanically Stabilized Earth Concrete Segmental Retaining Wall system (MSE C5R) using concrete block and a plastic mesh geogrid to achieve the required performance levels based on minimum factors of safety for the wall stability and the overall slope stability, to minimize the excavation required, particularly, to remain within the right of way and minimize the disturbance to the existing slope and achieve such using conventional construction equipment. Additionally, to minimize/eliminate the need for vibration and noise associated with pile driving.
When Crosslinx began excavation, Thursfield residents and neighbours were alarmed by the steepness of the excavation and concerned that the excavation did not comply with the standards outlined by Crosstown in their April 7th communication which indicated that the slope would be 1H:1V (45°). “It is easy to see that the slope is nowhere near 45°. It is practically a sheer cliff from our back fence” says Elaine Yip.
All of the efforts of Thursfield Crescent residents and a number of government officials to modify plans to move excavation further away from the edge of their properties and to allow some of the trees at the top of the ravine to maintain stability were fruitless. Soil sampling and installation of geotechnical instrumentation and monitoring moved forward between April and June 2020. Since then, Thursfield Crescent residents tolerate surveyors entering their property twice daily to measure vibrations and settlement. At the commencement of the construction in August, Thursfield residents complained of major vibrations in their homes. Several phone calls and emails were sent to Metrolinx/Crosslinx regarding the level of vibration and residents were told by Jocelyn Stenner at Metrolinx that “vibration limits have not exceeded the allowable limits at any time.” Thursfield resident Paul Wirsta said that “all the dishes in our cupboards are shaking and pictures are all askew on our walls, I would hate to see what happens if the vibration limits were unacceptable.”
As Crosslinx works to fill in the recent soil collapse and reassesses the retaining wall construction, Thursfield residents need assurance from Crosslinx that they will provide non-invasive long-term stability of the ravine slope and replacement of the canopy trees that were destroyed, rather than the proposed shrubs. Thursfield Crescent residents have engaged The Leaside Residents Association, Councilor Jaye Robinson and MPP Kathleen Wynne for the past 7 months with a strong message to plant canopy trees on the ravine slope in order to stabilize the ravine slope and restore some privacy, beauty and the environmental benefits of trees. The City of Toronto mandate is to achieve 40% canopy – this would seem both reasonable and logical. Thursfield Crescent residents also started a petition to replace the ravine trees on Change.org. With over 4,300 signatures to date, supporting the replacement of canopy trees, unfortunately, there has still been no positive update on behalf of Crosslinx.
As the residents of Thursfield Crescent, we are asking Crosslinx, to PLEASE replant canopy trees to restore the beauty and the stability of the ravine slope. “It is what we need to begin the healing process from this disheartening and distressing ordeal” states Meryl Kaczmarek. Canopy trees were removed, canopy trees should be replaced. The Leaside community and the Thursfield neighbours are in complete agreement with this.
Media Contacts:
Daniel Unruh
97 Thursfield Crescent
416-735-2321
daniel.m.unruh@gmail.com
Elaine Yip
99 Thursfield Crescent
647-965-6798
elaine.yip@gmail.com
Elena Valentino
93 Thursfield Crescent
416-560-2510
emvalentino@gmail.com
