Cross Passage Construction: Eglinton Avenue East at Walder Avenue

What

A cross passage is a small passageway built to connect the eastbound and westbound tunnels for maintenance and emergency purposes. Dewatering equipment is used at street level on Eglinton Avenue above the cross passage location. Dewatering is the process of removing groundwater from around the tunnel level below. The dewatering equipment will be in place for the duration of the building of the cross passage.

Where

While the majority of work will occur underground within the tunnels, dewatering operations will be visible on the surface on Eglinton Avenue East near Walder Avenue.

Why

Dewatering wells are an important part of the cross passage construction process in order to make sure that the water table remains low enough to allow the hand mining required to construct the interconnecting passage outside the main tunnels.

When

Construction will take place in three stages, starting as early as the week of July 18, 2016 for approximately four (4) months.

3 stages of cross passage work

Stage 1: Wells Installation on the north side of Eglinton Avenue East near Walder Avenue (approximately two weeks)

• Traffic will be shifted to the south side of Eglinton Avenue East during this stage of construction.
• Westbound Eglinton traffic will be prohibited from turning southbound on Cleveland Street.
• Eastbound Eglinton traffic will be prohibited from turning northbound on Walder Avenue. 
• Left turns from Walder Avenue to eastbound Eglinton Avenue East will be prohibited.
• Left turns from Cleveland Street to westbound Eglinton Avenue East will be prohibited.
• Between 7:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. there may be short/intermittent interruptions to vehicular access to the driveways of 520, 522, 524, 526, 528 and 530 Eglinton Avenue East.  

Stage 2: Wells installation on the south side of Eglinton Avenue East, between Banff Road and Cleveland Street (approximately two weeks)

• For this stage, the traffic staging area will begin east of Marmot Street to just east of Cleveland Street.
• Traffic will be shifted to the north side of Eglinton Avenue East during this stage of construction.
• Eastbound Eglinton traffic will be prohibited from turning northbound onto Walder Avenue. 
• Southbound traffic on Walder Avenue will be prohibited from turning eastbound onto Eglinton Avenue East.
• Northbound traffic on Cleveland Street will be prohibited from turning westbound onto Eglinton Avenue East.
• 485 Eglinton Avenue East:  Access/egress to the Eglinton-side roundabout driveway to 485 Eglinton Avenue East will remain open during this stage of construction.  However, between 7:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., one of the Eglinton roundabout access/egresses may temporarily need to be blocked, while the other will remain open.

Stage 3: Dewatering Storage Tank (approximately three months)

• A work zone will be set up on Eglinton Avenue East between Banff Road and 485 Eglinton Avenue East. 
• The eastbound curb lane on Eglinton Avenue East between Banff Road and the west driveway access to 485 Eglinton East will be closed.