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12 Comments

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Everyone, Stay Calm: Queen and Spadina Shutting Down for Two Weeks

By • Photo by Miles Storey

A press release from the City of Toronto today sure to strike fear into the hearts of commuters and downtown residents: the intersection of Queen and Spadina will be shut down to all vehicular traffic from 5 a.m. on this upcoming Monday, July 9, until 6 p.m. on Monday, July 23. The closure is to allow the TTC to continue its track-replacement work. Pedestrians will be able to continue accessing the intersection, which will hopefully take the sting out of things for businesses on the adjacent blocks.

Comments

  • http://hame.ca/one/ Hamish Grant

    I seem to recall the last time they did this (in the 1990′s) they did it in quadrants or halves, not the whole thing at once although there were times (when they were linking preassembled sections together) when traffic would be completely blocked.

  • Steve Munro

    The preassembled sections are larger now, and like the recent replacement of the grand union at King and Bathurst, the whole intersection will close for the work. Track construction standards have improved since the last time around, and the new intersection should last longer than the old one.

    • Anonymous

      I was amazed to see, when they put down new track on Lake Shore in south Etobicoke, that the old tracks still had wood beams. The new track they laid down looked very impressive, concrete bed and some sort of rubber covering all the metal parts below surface so it doesn’t come into contact with the concrete which apparently is very bad for both, especially when salt is added to the mix in winter. The new tracks were smoother and quieter and I have no doubt, despite not being an engineer and just by comparing the difference between the old and the new, they will last much longer.

      I was very impressed as well with the way they went about replacing the tracks in such an efficient manner reducing the amount of time lanes needed to be closed. It went much faster than I thought it would and we finally had our streetcars back in short time. Mind you I don’t take the streetcar to work, just for shopping and visiting, if I had to take the shuttle buses every day it probably would’ve seemed to take much longer.

  • http://twitter.com/tastycerealbox Robert K

    might go longer if the police decide to kettle in the construction workers.

  • Anonymous

    Auggghhh!!! THE WAR ON THE CAR !

    • http://twitter.com/tastycerealbox Robert K

      nothing wrong with the tracks, it’s a conspiracy.

      • http://twitter.com/wklis W. K. Lis

        Nothing wrong with the Gardiner, it’s a conspiracy.

  • guest

    Yet another reason why streetcars don’t make sense. Has the TTC ever had to replace asphalt just for a bus?

    • Anonymous

      Actually, yes, though it is probably out of regular road maintenance budget, rather than the TTC.

    • OgtheDim

      Haven’t you ever heard of bus knuckles?

      That, and they replaced the Finch station asphalt with concrete just this last year.

    • Anonymous

      Subways require far more infrastructure and upkeep; any argument against streetcars along that line of thought applies triply to subways.