The city of Toronto is currently engaged in a Western Waterfront Master Plan study. The purpose of the is to study on the type and location of park facilities, improvements to transportation, transit and pedestrian links with surrounding neighbourhoods.
The Western Waterfront Master Plan covers the area south of High Park bounded by the Humber River to the west and Marilyn Bell Park in the east. the area is 41 hectares or 101 acres in size and four kilometres long.
The railway tracks have divided the land north of the waterfront from the parkland since before the communities were created, and with the addition of the QEW expressway and Lake Shore Drive lane additions (1957) access to the the waterfront was severely cutoff. Many people have experienced the very difficult and extremely unpleasant crossing of the road/track gap from Parkside Dr , Dunn Ave, or Ellis Rd and most any other point along the length of the study area. Reading though the city site (linked below) they have a considerable number of ideas to create more usable beach areas and public space. Yet the connection to the communities though strolling and other means of simple access are not addressed. Doing this without affecting the traffic which seems to be very important in Toronto, is going to require a expensive and large flyover of some sort, maybe more than one. A unobstructed bridge object – one which is more than a bridge in fact a activity space itself, would greatly enhance the project each and every hour and every day for thousands of people.
Links
City of Toronto overall project site http://www.toronto.ca/waterfront/wwmp.htm
companies hired by the city to work on the project.
BAgroup BA Group (transportation planning and engineering services), in partnership with planningAlliance (planning and design practice), was awarded the project of developing the Master Plan for Toronto’s Western Waterfront parkland and area.
Consill
