Ah, the Gardiner Expressway: do we tear it down or do we keep paying hundreds of millions of dollars to repair it year after year? 

Since the 1990s, the City has spent millions of dollars repairing Toronto's aging municipal highway.

Remember when the #Gardiner closed for repairs in the Fall? I’m still trying to figure out what they did as I drive like this on my commute home 🤔 #Toronto #Ontario pic.twitter.com/ZxylihAX66

— Daniel Johnson (@danieljohnson4) February 11, 2019

From steel corrosion to falling pieces of concrete (and chairs), the deteriorating state of the Gardiner's eastern elevated area, which runs from Jarvis to the DVP, has cost the City far more than the original $103 million it took to build it in 1956. 

By tearing down the Gardiner East & replacing it with a boulevard, we'll save up to $500 million we can dedicate to transit and achieve better outcomes in terms of waterfront revitalization, economic development potential, noise, & sustainability. https://t.co/70qP7zozcC #topoli

— Jennifer Keesmaat (@jen_keesmaat) September 30, 2018

Many have advocated to tear it down and replace it with a boulevard, most notably Jennifer Keesmaat as ex-City Planner and during her run for mayor late last year. 

Do you want to see the Gardiner Expressway replaced it with a beautiful grand boulevard? https://t.co/Yy0S3HZzMF #Toronto

— blogTO (@blogTO) October 1, 2018

That proposal flies in the face of Mayor John Tory's and Waterfront Toronto's longtime Rehabilitation Strategy, which suggests a hybrid approach to fixing the Gardiner.

That plan, which appears to be going full steam ahead this year, includes replacing the entire concrete deck and all the steel girders of the Gardiner between Jarvis and Cherry Street. 

If we got money from tolls, why would be spend it on rebuilding the crappy east end of the Gardiner Expressway which all studies show is not the best investment or urban planning option for #Toronto? Why ruin the mounth of the Don for this? Makes no sense.

— Kristin Whiteley (@causalitybrunch) September 30, 2018

If the construction moves ahead on schedule, drivers can soon expect to see overnight lane closures of the westbound lanes of Lakeshore Boulevard from Cherry to Jarvis starting Feb. 19.  

But critics of the hybrid strategy still find the maintenance plan of the 1.7-kilometre stretch too costly, especially considering it's one of the least used parts of the entire highway, carrying 120,000 vehicles daily in comparison to the western portion, which carries around 200,000.

Toronto’s “invest heavily in the Gardiner while everything else falls apart” State of Good Repair budget strategy continues to befuddle me. https://t.co/nuHadyqiMG (PDF) pic.twitter.com/mXiIh2YlLd

— Matt Elliott (@GraphicMatt) February 12, 2019

According to the City's 2019 State of Good Repair budget, Toronto plans to invest more than $2.2 billion into the Gardiner over the next nine years to eliminate the backlog of maintenace costs, which currently sits at around $2 billion.

It's the most expensive maintenance fee in the budget, costing $1 billion more than the cost of Transportation Services in Toronto and far more than the TTC. 

Toronto is spending over $3 billion just to repair 1.7 km of Gardiner Expressway.
So $100 million to help people doesn't seem like all that much.

— Mx Golem (@TheGolem1) December 28, 2018

Meanwhile, backlog for the City's housing services maintenance cost is expected to rise by nearly $1.5 billion over the next nine years.