[Natika33]

Hmmm... I'm not against pedestrianizing the area around NPS & the Eaton Centre, but that doesn't strike me as the area that needs it the most given that there are few stores that open to the street in that area & NPS is already a giant pedestrian zone. I think further west on Queen past Osgoode station & on to Spadina could use it even more, particularly just to the west of University where the sidewalk on the south side gets seriously narrow right around the TTC staircase entrance.

 

[kotsy]

 

[flonicky]

 

[kotsy]

I wonder when they're going to start excavating!

 

[Rivenbourn]

I wonder when they're going to start excavating!

Technically they have

However I’m not sure if this is going to get filled back in.

 

[stevedean]

Technically they have

View attachment 615682


However I’m not sure if this is going to get filled back in.

looks like they've got one guy digging the hole by hand

 

[kotsy]

 

[nightstreak]

Was at Eaton Centre today and this work seems to be behind schedule. According to the most recent Metrolinx notice, piling was to be completed in March and excavation to start in April. I haven't seen any more piles than what are in @kotsy 's January picture, nothing even started east of the pedestrian bridge. Something tells me the 4 and a half year closure of Queen Street is going to turn into 5 or 6 years.

 

[flonicky]

 

[nightstreak]

View attachment 639790

View attachment 639791

View attachment 639792

View attachment 639793

Ha! Maybe they read my comment

As a regular visitor to the Eaton Centre, I avoid this often changed maze of walkways on Queen St as much as possible and I wonder if it's really going to be shut down for 5 years in this state. Does it take 5 years to dig a trench or would part of the street be returned to pedestrian use after a period of shoring, digging and decking over?

I'm also very curious about what's under there. Is there a cross section of Queen Station like there is for Spadina and Bathurst stations?

 

[officedweller]

From the project twitter:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1910413982168502325

 

[nightstreak]

I found a cross section of the Queen station but it's from very early in the Ontario Line design and likely outdated. But It gives an idea of the layout and depth of the new station.

This is looking north, centred on Yonge Street

 

[UtakataNoAnnex]

...that's scarily deep, deep.

 

[drum118]

April 11

 

[ben.thebean1]

...that's scarily deep, deep.

I thought the same thing when these diagrams first came out, but then I realized how much shi- I mean uh, things have probably been buried, dug, drilled, bored, etc. beneath the level of the subway in 100 years of city growth, even parking garages and things like that. The depth is just to avoid all of it

edit: also, the ground here is pretty awful for digging tunnels. It was once lakebed, crushed and fractured by glaciers and the tectonic settling that occurred once the weight of the glaciers disappeared. Once you get down to around 20-25 metres, it starts to get slightly easier to tunnel