The cancelled expressways in Toronto were a planned series of municipal expressways in Toronto, Ontario, Canada that were only partially built or cancelled due to public opposition. Metropolitan Toronto's system of superhighways or freeways were developed during a period of rapid growth in the suburban municipalities and were intended to handle the projected level of traffic into and out of the core. At the same time, the Province of Ontario was expanding the 400-Series Highways which would connect to municipalities outside of Metro.
A coalition of citizens, many living within the path of the projected expressways campaigned against the plans. A former resident of New York City, Jane Jacobs brought her experience fighting expressways there to the coalition. The coalition was opposed to the demolition of homes and park lands, air pollution, noise and the high cost of construction. The Spadina Expressway, planned since the 1940s, was cancelled in 1971 after being only partially constructed. After the Spadina cancellation, the remaining expressway plans were abandoned and one strip of built expressway was eventually torn down.
History
By the 1940s, urban development extended past the city of Toronto's borders. It was recognized within the planning department of the city that population growth would take place and that the farmlands outside of the city's border would be developed. In 1943, the City of Toronto Planning Board developed a plan for the area within a nine-mile radius of Yonge Street and Queen Street. It included a network of superhighways: Lakeshore Expressway (which was implemented as the Gardiner Expressway), from QEW-427 interchange along the waterfront east to Scarborough's eastern border, Spadina Expressway North along Coxwell Avenue to today's Don Valley and 401 interchange, Toronto By-Pass (this comprised the highway stretches of today's Highway 427 from the QEW to 401 and Highway 401 from Highway 427 to Pickering) From 427-QEW interchange, along Bloor Street east to meet Don Valley, then east along Gerrard to meet Lakeshore at Victoria Park An unnamed highway which started at the foot of today's Don Valley, then north-west to Eglinton, then west along Eglinton to the vicinity of Pearson airport. Source: Sewell (2009)
Metro forms
With the creation of Metropolitan Toronto (Metro) in 1953, a new level of government was created with the authority to build what was necessary to facilitate the growth expected within the Metro area. Metro would build the infrastructure, such as sewers, sewage treatment plants, public transit, highways and arterial roads, leaving local roads and land use planning to the individual governments. Based on the 1940s plans, Metro planned to build an extensive network of highways that crisscrossed the city. While Metro would pay 100% of the cost of most infrastructure, Ontario paid 50% of the cost of road projects.
While the provincial government would plan and build highways crossing Metro and highways to connect to municipalities outside of Metro, Metro would focus on roads serving the downtown core and connecting the downtown core to the growing suburbs. The plan was centred on a number of major routes, notably the "Toronto-Barrie Highway" (Highway 400) on the north-west of Toronto, and the Queen Elizabeth Way on the southwest side. The province was already deep in the planning process for what would become Highway 400 along the northern reaches of the city, in what was then farmland far from the city core. To connect these highways, which ended at the city limits for the most part, with the downtown core, Metro would be responsible for continuing construction into the city.
Beginning of construction Construction of the network started with what was then known as the Lakeshore Expressway, which would connect the QEW from its terminus at the Humber River with the downtown core. The initial western section opened in 1958, continuing eastward as an elevated highway to York Street in the city core in 1962, and further to the Don River by 1964. During construction the Lakeshore was renamed the Gardiner Expressway, after the first chair of Metropolitan Toronto and major supporter of the expressway plans, Fred Gardiner. A second expressway, the Don Valley Parkway, opened between Bloor Street and Eglinton Avenue in 1961, and continued to develop north and south until it connected to Highway 401 in the north and the Gardiner Expressway in the south.
These plans were only the beginning of an even larger network that was first proposed in 1959 and fully developed by 1966 when it became the official plan. In 1959, Metro developed the concept of 'rings' of expressways around the central core. The inner ring included the Crosstown east-west along Davenport connecting to the Don Valley in the east and the Highway 400 extension to the west, the Highway 400 extension down Christie and Grace Streets from Davenport, connecting to the Gardiner near Fort York just west of the downtown core, and the Gardiner and Don Valley Expressways. The outer ring is composed of Highway 401 along the north, Highway 427 on the west, the Gardiner on the south and the Scarborough to the east, connecting the Gardiner Expressway in the downtown core with Highway 401 in the far eastern reaches of the city. Other links included the Richview, a shorter at-grade expressway connecting the western end of the Crosstown at the Highway 400 extension with Highway 27 further west, and eventually connecting to the proposed Ontario Highway 403 and the Spadina Expressway which ran north–south and connected the middle of Highway 401 with the downtown core, ending on Spadina Avenue near the University of Toronto.
By 1962, the Spadina Expressway project was approved and construction proceeded in 1963 from Wilson Avenue south to Lawrence Avenue. At first, Metro approved only the construction from Lawrence to Wilson. However, the province would not give funds for its construction unless Metro approved the whole route, which was done. During construction, priority was given to access to the new Yorkdale Shopping Centre, which opened in 1964. Drivers could drive from Lawrence Avenue north along a paved section of the expressway north to Yorkdale. The interchange to Highway 401 would be completed later. In 1961, one link in the inner ring, the Crosstown, was cancelled by Metro Council, although carried forward by Metro planning officials. Toronto and Metro proposed alternate routes for Highway 400, with Toronto favouring a route along the railway lines.
Metro developed its official transportation plan, starting in 1964 by evaluating three concepts, a road-oriented plan, a transit-oriented plan, and a mixed plan, referred to as the 'balanced system'. The road-oriented system omitted the Spadina subway and included all of the expressways. The mixed system did not omit any roads but did omit a Queen Street subway. The transit-oriented plan included Eglinton Avenue and Queen Street subways, extending the Spadina north to Vaughan, and extending the Bloor-Danforth line east into Scarborough. It also included express bus routes along the expressways and commuter rail. The inner ring of highways was not included.
'Balanced' plan Road-oriented Transit-oriented Facilities Distance of expresswaysA Distance of rapid transit lines System performance Average trip speed Average trip time 28.9 min 31.9 min 28.3 min Vehicle performance Average vehicle speed Average speed on expressways Average speed on arterial roads Average trip length Average trip time 25.6 min 28.5 min 25.5 min CostsB Costs below the balanced system base cost $240 million below $912 million below Congestion Distance of heavily congested roads Location of heavy congestion mainly downtown scattered, some downtown scattered, none downtown, none on Bathurst
A – Distances were direct routes between points, not distances along road alignments B – costs were estimated by Nowlan at $16 million per actual mile ($26 million per km) (the base routes were of expressway) Sources: Metro Toronto Planning Board, The Metropolitan Transportation Plan, 1964. Nowlan and Nowlan (1970), pg. 42
The balanced plan, expected to be implemented by 1980, was estimated to cost $1 billion to construct. The expressway component (Crosstown, Spadina and Gardiner and Don Valley extensions) was estimated to cost $210 million.
The mixed system, although it was the most expensive, was approved by Metro Council in December 1966. The official plan now included the Crosstown again, although it was not approved for construction. Toronto still rejected the Crosstown, and the Ontario government rewrote the Toronto city official plan to accept that it might be built. Construction of the Crosstown was not expected until the 1970s. After completion of the Spadina south to Lawrence, approval was then given to proceed south to Eglinton, and start the process of expropriating homes and park lands for its construction, although without an interchange for the Crosstown.
Problems and protests
The construction plans became a point of growing protests in the late 1960s. The route of the Gardiner Expressway and the Don Valley Parkway had run mostly through industrial areas, parkland, or generally unused areas and had not generated much public concern during early construction. This changed as the Gardiner Expressway approached the downtown area, which resulted in the demolishing of long-established neighbourhoods. The planned expressways would require the same throughout the city and, with the exception of the northern ends of the roads, generally ran through well-settled areas. In particular, the Spadina Expressway ran through the Forest Hill, The Annex, Harbord Village, Kensington Market and Chinatown neighbourhoods, while the Crosstown would present a below-grade barrier on The Annex's northern border. The Crosstown would run beside Rosedale on its eastern end, displacing a forested ravine.
A new resident to The Annex, Jane Jacobs, had been instrumental in blocking the Lower Manhattan Expressway in New York City before moving to Canada in 1969. According to Jacobs, it was the construction of expressways into major American cities that led to an exodus of the middle class, and the death of once-vibrant downtown cores. With David and Nadine Nowlan, they formed the "Stop Spadina And Save Our City" group, which grew to become a major rallying point for anti-expressway feeling in the city. By the late 1960s, the Spadina Expressway had become a "hot" topic politically.
To add to the problems, by 1969 construction of the Spadina Expressway had just reached Eglinton Avenue (although paved only to Lawrence Avenue), less than half its planned route, but had already spent almost all of its $79 million budget. Metro Toronto had to return to the Ontario Municipal Board for additional loans, which were provided in a two-to-one decision. Stop Spadina appealed, and construction was halted pending the outcome. In 1971 Premier John Robarts retired and handed the Premiership to William Davis, who agreed to hear an appeal of the Municipal Board's decision.
Cancellation of Spadina Expressway
On June 3, 1971, Davis rose in the Provincial Legislature and stated:
Davis agreed to continue funding for the construction of the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) subway line (now part of Line 1 Yonge–University) that was part of the original project plans, and later, in 1972, agreed to complete the unfinished portion of the Expressway between Eglinton and Lawrence. The debate on whether or not to continue the Expressway further south from Eglinton continued throughout the 1970s.
Aftermath