The Frederick G. Gardiner Expressway, commonly known as the Gardiner Expressway or simply the Gardiner, is a partially at grade and elevated municipal expressway in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Running close to the shore of Lake Ontario, it extends from the foot of the Don Valley Parkway (DVP) in the east, just past the mouth of the Don River, to the junction of Highway 427 and the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) in the west, for a total length of . East of Dufferin Street to just east of the Don River, the roadway is elevated for a length of , unofficially making it the longest bridge in Ontario.
The Gardiner is named after the first chair of the now-defunct Metro Council, Frederick G. Gardiner."Gardiner Expressway: 'Big Daddy's' gift to Toronto". Toronto Star, July 10, 2016. The six-lane section east of the Humber River was built in segments from 1955 until 1964 by the Metropolitan Toronto government with provincial highway funds, and upon completion the Gardiner also received the Highway 2 provincial route numbering until 1998. The ten-lane section west of the Humber was formerly the eastern-most section of the QEW until it was transferred to Metro Toronto in 1997.
Often described as "an out-of-date, crumbling and frequently traffic-jammed freeway", the Gardiner is now the focus of a major rehabilitation project that is expected to last at least until 2030. The condition of the elevated section has deteriorated over the years, necessitating much of its replacement. Parts of the expressway have been demolished or re-designed. A section east of the Don River was demolished in 2001, while in 2018, the off-ramp to York/Bay/Yonge Streets was replaced by an off-ramp to Lower Simcoe Street, and the eastern terminus to Lake Shore Boulevard was demolished the following year.
In November 2023, the municipal and provincial governments announced a tentative deal that will see responsibility for the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway transferred to the provincial government, with the two highways to be maintained as provincial highways.
Route description
From the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) and Highway 427 interchange, east to the Humber River, the Gardiner is straight, eight-to-ten lanes wide. A continuation of the QEW, municipal control of the freeway starts shortly after an onramp from Highway 427. Due to its status as a former Ontario 400-series highway when it was previously the eastern segment of the QEW, and because of its more recent design (rebuilt in the late 1960s), this section was built to higher standards than the Metro-constructed Gardiner and has a speed limit of 100 km/h. A system of collector and express lanes serves the Parclo interchanges with Kipling Avenue and Islington Avenue, and as the eastbound collector lanes merge into the express lanes approaching the Royal York Road overpass this also marks the start of the lengthy off-ramp to Park Lawn Road. From Highway 427 to Grand Avenue the highway passes through an area of residential, commercial and light industry. To the south are the neighbourhoods of Alderwood and Mimico. After the 1997 provincial downloading to Metro (which became the "Megacity" of Toronto in 1998), much of this former QEW has remained largely unchanged though some segments have received a mix of high mast and low masts with shaded high pressure sodium lamps (similar to the Don Valley Parkway), while the old steel guardrail in the median was replaced by an Ontario "tall-wall" concrete barrier in 2007. Worn-out bilingual provincial signage has received unilingual replacements, while billboards which the province had long prohibited have been erected in proximity of the now-municipal freeway.
East of Grand Avenue, the freeway crosses Park Lawn Road and a CN rail line, then it curves as it passes the residential condominium towers of The Queensway – Humber Bay neighbourhood along the waterfront, the Mr. Christie cookie factory (which later became a part of Mondelēz International) and the Ontario Food Terminal on the north side. Two eastbound lanes exit to Lake Shore Boulevard as the eastbound carriageway narrows to three lanes, followed shortly by an onramp from Lake Shore Boulevard (which was also the point where the Gardiner previously assumed the provincial Highway 2 concurrency from Lake Shore Boulevard, until 1998 when the province downloaded most of Highway 2 which left both Lake Shore Boulevard and the Gardiner without a provincial route number). The westbound carriageway widens to four lanes thanks to the onramp from Lake Shore Boulevard becoming a continuous lane. As the route meets the west bank of the Humber River this marks the QEW's old eastern terminus and the beginning of the Metro Toronto-built segment. This old demarcation line was quite visible on the highway as a change in pavement quality and the use of different guardrail and lighting (since the late 1960s the province used truss poles originally fitted with mercury halide lamps before being replaced by high-pressure sodium in the 1990s, while Metro installed distinctive cobra-neck 30-foot (9.1 m) poles with fluorescent tubes that were since swapped for orange low-pressure sodium lamps in 1978).
East of Brookers Lane, the route geometry of Lake Shore becomes complicated due to the interchange with the parallel Gardiner Expressway; as the two routes run right next to each other to the north near the Humber River crossing: The westbound lanes cross the Gardiner (running along the north side of it) and are intertwined with the ramp from the westbound expressway which meets the street opposite Brookers Lane after crossing back to the south side; although Lake Shore still has an overlapping two-way section east of this point entirely south of the Gardiner. The Lake Shore streetcar line runs along this segment for a short distance before leaving the street to enter Humber Loop via a short tunnel under the Gardiner. Lake Shore then briefly downgrades to a two-lane local street and then becomes one lane (and one way) eastbound as it merges with the eastbound offramp from the Gardiner (which provides the large majority of the traffic along Lake Shore east of this point). on the Humber River bridge.
East of the Humber River bridges the speed limit lowers to 90 km/h as the Gardiner curves along Humber Bay, passing to the south of the Swansea neighbourhood, before passing the Sunnyside waterfront on the south and High Park and the Roncesvalles neighbourhood on the north side. Along the north side from Roncesvalles to Exhibition Place is the neighbourhood of Parkdale. Like the rail lines which run parallel to the Gardiner along its north side, the Gardiner is built in a cut from Dowling Avenue to Dufferin Street and is below grade. From Dufferin to Strachan Avenue, the highway is flanked by light industry and a wall of residential towers in the Liberty Village neighbourhood to the north and the buildings of Exhibition Place on the south side. The highway becomes elevated at this point, rising at a gentle grade with a view of the Toronto skyline straight ahead.
From east of the Exhibition Place streetcar loop and just west of Strachan Avenue, the space below the elevated sections of the highway was enclosed for use as storage space. Bricked sections with windows can be seen when driving along Manitoba Drive or taking the streetcar in or out of Exhibition Place. GO Transit's Exhibition train station is located under the Gardiner Expressway with tracks located on the north side of the Gardiner.
To the east of Strachan Avenue, the highway is entirely elevated mostly overhead of Lake Shore Boulevard. Just east of Strachan, the highway passes historic Fort York on the north side and Coronation Park to the south. From Bathurst Street eastward to Spadina Avenue, it passes through CityPlace and immediately after passes south of the CN Tower and the Rogers Centre and north of the residential condominiums of the western end of the Harbourfront neighbourhood. Between York and Yonge Streets, the highway is flanked by the downtown skyscrapers of the South Core and eastern Harbourfront area, and passes the Scotiabank Arena. North along Bay Street are the office towers of the Toronto Financial District. From Yonge east to the Don Valley Parkway, the rail lines run parallel to the Gardiner on the north side, and to the north of the rail lines is the low-rise residential development of the St. Lawrence neighbourhood, the Distillery District and the West Don Lands. To the south of the highway, the land use is light industrial and waterfront lands in transition. The highway crosses the Don River where there are connecting ramps to the Don Valley Parkway. From 2002 to September 2021, the highway's elevated section descends to ground level via the Logan Avenue Ramp where it merges with Lake Shore Boulevard before a signalized intersection with Bouchette Street. Due to the ongoing realigment of the highway's eastern end as of September 2021, with the demolition of the Don River crossing and Logan Avenue Ramp, traffic defaults to the Don Valley Parkway ramp.
The elevated section is supported by steel-reinforced concrete columns. The roadway itself was constructed on top of concrete slabs supported by steel girders. The height of the elevated section is higher than required to cross city streets and provide clearance underneath. The intent of this was to reduce traffic noise at ground level. The highest point of the elevated section is the eastbound ramp from the Gardiner to the Don Valley Parkway which goes up and over the westbound lanes, then drops to ground level. A tall wall concrete barrier topped with green metal blades is installed in the median of the elevated segment. The blades act to reduce the glare of oncoming headlights from the opposing direction of traffic. During the original construction concrete parapet walls with metal railings were used in the outer sections as well as a divider between westbound and eastbound traffic. At grade sections west of Bathurst Street use steel guard rails, but originally featured a narrow grass median.
The Bentway
A public trail and activity space was built underneath the Gardiner, between Strachan and Spadina Avenue. Named after the Gardiner's main supports (bents), The Bentway uses bents to create 55 separate areas for a variety of activities. The first phase of the project was completed on January 6, 2018.
Lighting
The Gardiner, along with the Don Valley Parkway and Allen Road, were fitted with distinct cobra-neck lamp poles. They were first fitted with fluorescent tubes in the 1960s, which was changed to the orange low-pressure sodium-vapor lamps (LPS) in 1978. (A 1960s experiment of installing lights on the elevated Gardiner's parapets was quickly shelved.) In the late 1990s, the low pressure sodium lighting was failing and most of the cobra-neck conventional poles were replaced in favour of shaded high-mast lighting, with high-pressure sodium-vapor lamps (HPS); however the elevated Gardiner still retained the LPS cobra-neck poles for seven more years, while the section immediately west of Dufferin Street still contains several with HPS lamps. The last remaining LPS lamps, which were no longer being produced, were all replaced by HPS in early 2006.
Since the end of 2003, the conventional truss lighting poles that the province installed on the QEW segment in the late 1960s have been removed west of Kipling Avenue and east of Royal York Road, being replaced with shaded high-mast lighting like that used on the Don Valley Parkway. The HPS lamps on the elevated section are currently being replaced with LED lighting on the existing cobra-neck poles.
Safety On August 11, 1958, three days after the road opened, the Gardiner Expressway's first collision happened.