City
Dufferin Jog To Be a Thing of The Past
It's taken over a century, but the detour known as the Dufferin jog is finally being straightened, after years languishing on the city's wish list of improvements. Pedestrians, TTC riders and drivers passing through the eastern gateway into Parkdale might not notice much going on at the moment, but by the fall the signs of this momentous alteration to the west end streetscape will be hard to ignore.
John Bryson, manager of the city's Structures and Expressways department, describes what will happen once the $40 million project, which kicked off in June, reaches its crucial phase later this fall. The first of a two-part process will start with the shifting of two of the four railway lines that travel over Queen on an 111-year-old landmark underpass.
"The railway will shift their rail lines to the south so we can finish the north half, and we'll finish the north half with normal excavation, cast in place, and then we'll move the railway lines onto the north half and we'll start on the south half. We will take out the limestone walls on Queen Street and we will be saving that limestone for another purpose, and then we will have the opening for Dufferin on Queen Street."
Right now, the only evidence of the work going on at the heart of the jog is a quartet of massive steel anchors screwed into the north wall of the underpass on Queen, next to where Dufferin will re-emerge, and another four steel supports positioned to help take the weight of the rail lines.
Horses still traveled dirt roads when Dufferin last crossed Queen at grade, intersected by railway lines, but the construction of the Queen St. Subway in 1898 made Dufferin's dogleg detour onto Peel and Gladstone avenues and Queen a supposedly permanent part of the city landscape. In some ways, it'll be a shame to see the jog disappear, as it's one of the few remnants of the days when railways shaped the way Toronto grew.
Bryson says that the underpass is in fine shape, and that the only issue so far is meeting the schedule for the vital rerouting of GO and CN trains, and that they'll probably be finished by late spring or early summer. "My suspicion is that there will be some kind of ribbon cutting ceremony mostly because next year's election year."
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And won't more people get in their cars to fill in the available capacity created? I thought we had gotten past this idea of improving traffic flow. I bet a pedestrian overpass would be cheaper and have a more positive impact on the neighbourhood.
I say horray for the jog elimination, though it does seem expensive.
What a shithole.
The people on Peel and Gladstone can re-design their streets as 4 lanes will not be needed anymore, bike lanes and trees instead of having cars blazing around the 2 sharp curves on their street 24 hours a day.
The new bridge will also be bigger and allow for GO Train expansion as well. All in all it seems like a worthwhile project to me.
The sooner our so-called transportation planners start dealing with the fact that our 1850 planning has fouled up the city, we can rejoin the 21st Century.
The city is a spaghetti-weave of streets that just end or jog. A partial list would include: Dundas St. W., Davenport, Dupont, St. Clair (just past Mt. Pleasant), Lawrence (Bayview), nearly all streets at High Park, Avenue Rd. (take your pick - Upper Canada College, or the 401, Mt. Pleasant at Lawrence. The list goes on and on.
It really makes one wonder if anyone at anytime in the 19th Century thought beyond the first quarter million people to move into and around the city! Cities with far worse natural obstacles (mountains, major rivers, oceans) managed their street planning better than Toronto ever did. We brag about Toronto having a 'grid' street pattern, but a cursory glance at a map lays that lie to rest.
And now we are paying for it in gawdawful traffic and unnecessary delays for everyone. I say kudos to the Dufferin 'straightening.' Now, are they going to make it 6 lanes?
We are concerned with our well being.
Ummmmmmm, 501 streetcar? Dufferin bus? Should those not flow?
Traffic flow is extremely important in a city where so much transit is on the surface, mixed with evil cars and trucks.
It creates huge traffic problems, haven't you seen? Not just for cars, but for streetcars and buses too. It also confuses people visiting the area, and makes for sometimes strange traffic conditions for cyclists trying to get by.
Assuming it's true, there'll be a lot more cars coming South down Dufferin. At least they have an excuse for fixing that road, which to me is one of the worst downtown. But that traffic will be going right through a school zone. Will make things interesting.
I hope the traffic speed will be slowed somehow along dufferin southbound approaching queen. I hope it isn't going to be like South of Bloor along the shopping mall. Cars seem to just ramp their speed up double along that stretch. I think it has something to do with the fact there's no parked cars along that stretch and nothing to stop for except the Mall entrances. When I'm on my bicycle I haven't to pay extra attention.
At least the flow will be better through Queen... so even though there'll be increased traffic, maybe it won't be as bad as the rest of Toronto... errrr.... ummmm.... yea.
Poor house-owners along that stretch. Oh and poor Parkdale poor people that get pushed furthur West. How far can they go? Eventually they hit the middle-class area around High Park/Roncesvalles. There's got to be affordable spots for poorer people downtown, we can't just keep spreading the condo yups out.