Toronto's popular waterfront promenade is about to get a huge extension

The impressive granite-paved promenade lining Toronto's waterfront is about to grow even larger.

Construction crews are hard at work extending a section of the red granite pathways lining two sections of the city's waterfront.

The waterfront promenade's eastern section extending from Canada's Sugar Beach is currently being expanded to the Parliament slip to surround a new addition to the neighbourhood.

The new Aqualuna development's imminent completion at the west end of the slip will soon inject new life to the burgeoning East Bayfront district with hundreds of new residents and a fancy community centre.

The eastern section of the promenade's 9.4-metre-wide red granite mosaic maple leaf pattern now wraps around the south and east sides of Aqualuna, adding to the approximately one-kilometre stretch.

It's an infrastructure upgrade almost 20 years in the making, developed from the winning entry of a 2006 design competition, and opening with an initial segment connecting Canada's Sugar Beach with Sherbourne Common, opened in 2010.

Much of the paving is already in place, and rows of trees will soon be planted to complete the look.

Extension of the promenade is happening in conjunction with an ambitious plan to transform a formerly industrial Parliament Slip into a new attraction.

First proposed in March 2021 and updated in 2024, the preliminary stages of the Parliament Slip project are now underway with reshaping of the basin and the granite pavers being extended to the west edge of the slip.

The current extension comes five and a half years since the last completed section of promenade to the immediate west opened in 2019.