Ward 30 Bikes : 2014

Monday, December 15, 2014

Ward30bikes group meeting - Tuesday Dec 16th 7pm

In our usual place:

South Riverdale Community Health Centre
955 Queen Street East, Toronto, ON M4M 3P3

See you then!

21 Don Roadway Walk-about - Leg #1: Railway Service Road

Leg #1
Railway Service Road

This is Leg #1 of a preliminary site walk of the perimeter of the 21 Don Roadway site.

All 10 Legs of this walk-about I did on Saturday, December 6, 2014, have a blog post that goes with it. A list of those blogs is below, or at the link (or on the map - click on the drop-down menu icon, top-left of the map):

Ward 30 Bikes | A Map: 21 Don Roadway Walk-about - December 6, 2014 | http://ward30bikes.blogspot.ca/2014/12/a-map-21-don-roadway-walk-about.html

On this Leg of the site walk-about I started at Eastern Avenue and the railway overpass (red line) and bicycled west to it's terminus at the Don Valley Parkway. On the way back I found a spot with no fencing (at about 130m from Eastern Ave and the rail overpass) and scrambled up the steep 3 metre high railway berm in order to see if I could get a good look at the 30 acre site from the north of it.

At the western extent of the Railway Service Rd.

Looking northeast back along the route I had just come - with a GO Train speeding eastbound

Looking southwest at the DVP about 10m below, and an disused rail bridge across the Don River

Panorama Shots

Panorama 1 - looking south across the front of the Lever building

Panorama 2 - looking south at the north face of the Lever building

Panorama

Rail Berm Context Shots

Looking southwest across the rail service road, red brick structure is the southeast corner of the Lever Plant and behind it, a huge array of production line buildings stretching along the south perimeter of the property

Looking southeast - in the far distance - on the south side of the shipping channel on the Port Lands - you can see the decommissioned Richard L. Hearn Generating Station and it's high smokestack

Further east now you can see the fence between the Embridge Yards and the Transportation Yards (large white shed (left, upper-middle)

Lookinf directly east now - at the edge of the picture you can see the southern side of the turn of the century grand storage barns that front Eastern Avenue on the north side of the Transportation Services Yards

Railway Berm Panorama

Panorama 1

Panorama 2

Panorama 3

Panorama 4

Panoraama

List of Blog posts for each Leg of the walk-about:

Leg #1: 21 Don Roadway Walk-about - Leg #1: Railway Service Road | http://ward30bikes.blogspot.ca/2014/12/21-don-roadway-walk-about-leg-1-railway.html

Leg #2: 21 Don Roadway Walk-about - Leg #2: Radio Tower Service Road | http://ward30bikes.blogspot.com/2014/12/21-don-roadway-walk-about-leg-2-radio.html

Leg #3 and Leg #4: 21 Don Roadway Walk-about - Leg #3 & #4: Transportation Services Yard | http://ward30bikes.blogspot.ca/2014/12/21-don-roadway-walk-about-leg-3-4.html

Leg #5: 21 Don Roadway Walk-about - Leg #5: Booth Ave Google Bike Route | http://ward30bikes.blogspot.com/2014/12/21-don-roadway-walk-about-leg-5-booth.html

Leg #6: 21 Don Roadway Walk-about - Leg #6: CineSpace Lot | http://ward30bikes.blogspot.ca/2014/12/21-don-roadway-walk-about-leg-6.html

Leg #7: 21 Don Roadway Walk-about - Leg #7: LDRT/Don Roadway Boulevard | http://ward30bikes.blogspot.com/2014/12/21-don-roadway-walk-about-leg-7-ldrtdon.html

Leg #8: 21 Don Roadway Walk-about - Leg #8: Don River Canal Wall | http://ward30bikes.blogspot.ca/2014/12/21-don-roadway-walk-about-leg-8-don.html

Leg #9: 21 Don Roadway Walk-about - Leg #9: Don Roadway / LDT | http://ward30bikes.blogspot.ca/2014/12/21-don-roadway-walk-about-leg-9-don.html

Leg #10: 21 Don Roadway Walk-about - Leg #10: Lake Shore Boulevard Bridge | http://ward30bikes.blogspot.ca/2014/12/21-don-roadway-walk-about-leg-10-lake.html

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21 Don Roadway Walk-about - Leg #2: Radio Tower Service Road

Leg #2:
Radio Tower Service Road

This blog is about Leg #2 of a preliminary walk of the 21 Don Roadway site perimeter that I walked and cycled on Saturday, December 6, 2014. All 10 legs of this walk-about have a blog post that goes with it. A list of those is below, or at the link (or on the map - click on the drop-down menu icon, top left on the map):

Ward 30 Bikes | A Map: 21 Don Roadway Walk-about - December 6, 2014 | http://ward30bikes.blogspot.ca/2014/12/a-map-21-don-roadway-walk-about.html

In this part of the walk/cycle trip I started west on the Radio Tower Service Rd from where it begins off the rail line service road - about 100m from Eastern Ave and the rail line underpass (mustard-yellow line). The Radio Tower Service Rd runs parallel to Railway Service Rd, but dips along it's progress west until it's about 4 metres lower in elevation to the the Rail Service Rd - as they both terminate at the Don Valley Parkway.

At the terminus of the Radio Tower Service Road next to the Don Valley Expressway.

The Lever Plant parking lot is in the background and the north boundary, Lever perimeter road is right in front at the barrier. Note the white conveyor system turning north under the rail line underpass - an access point north that I point to in Leg #7 and Leg #9.

Looking south from the radio tower service road - Lever Plant Panorama #1 06-12-14 14:36

Lever Plant front loading docks - in the background the Gardiner Expressway.

Panorama

List of Blog posts for each Leg of the walk-about:

21 Don Roadway Walk-about - Leg #3 & #4: Transportation Services Yard

Leg #3 & Leg #4
Transportation Services Yard (a), and Transportation Services Yard (b).

This blog is about Leg #3 and Leg #4 of a preliminary site walk of the 21 Don Roadway site.

All 10 Legs of this walk-about have blog posts that go with them. You can see a list of them below, or at the link (or on the map - click on the drop-down menu icon, top-left on the map):

Ward 30 Bikes | A Map: 21 Don Roadway Walk-about - December 6, 2014 | http://ward30bikes.blogspot.ca/2014/12/a-map-21-don-roadway-walk-about.html

These 2 Legs of the walk-about (blue and sky-blue on the map) start at the Eastern Avenue entrance at 433 Eastern. I check out the western boundary to the Yards and then - to try to get an impression of the scale of the proposed development - I go up the ramp to the roof-top car park on top of the maintenance sheds just to the east of the north parking lot.

Transportation Services Yard (north parking lot)

Looking west from the Transportation Services Yards north parking lot a the Enbridge Yard. Top-right of the photograph you can see the Easter Ave underpass under the rail line - marks the north extent of the First Gulf property.

Enbridge Yard with the Lever Plant in the background, on the left

Looking west across the Enbridge fence at the Lever building, and downtown Toronto in the background

Transportation Services north parking lot including the property line fence

A 4-Shot Panorama

Panorama 1

Panorama 2

Panorama 3

Panorama 4

Panorama

Transportation Services Yard (maintenance sheds roof-top parking lot - looking west)

Looking west-by-north-west at the rail line - note the GO Train which defines the northern extent of the First Gulf property

Looking west-by-north-west at the Eastern Ave rail underpass (highlighted in white) - the service road entrance there marks the north extent of the First Gulf property.

A 4-Shot Panorama:

Panorama 1

Panorama 2

Panorama 3

Panorama 4

Panorama

Transportation Yards (maintenance sheds roof-top parking lot, southeast corner - looking south)

Looking south at Booth Ave and the CineSpace studios, from the Transportation Service roof-top lunch area

A 2-Shot Panorama:

Panorama 1

Panorama 2

Panorama

List of Blog posts for each Leg of the walk-about:

21 Don Roadway Walk-about - Leg #5: Booth Ave Google Bike Route

Leg #5
Booth Ave Google Bike Route

This blog is about Leg #5 of a preliminary walk of the 21 Don Roadway site. All 10 Legs of this walk-about have blog posts that go with them. Those blogs are listed below, or at the link (and at each leg of the map - click the drop-down menu icon, top-left on the map):

Ward 30 Bikes | A Map: 21 Don Roadway Walk-about - December 6, 2014 | http://ward30bikes.blogspot.ca/2014/12/a-map-21-don-roadway-walk-about.html

Google Maps shows a "Bicycle friendly road" (green dotted line) on Booth Avenue - from Eastern south to the Booth Avenue entrance to the City of Toronto Transportation Services Yard.

There are no signs on the street, and no markings on the pavement.

List of Blog posts for each Leg of the walk-about:

21 Don Roadway Walk-about - Leg #6: CineSpace Lot

Leg #6
The CineSpace Lot

This is Leg #6 of a preliminary walk of the 21 Don Roadway site. This leg (purple on the map) took me from the CineSpace entrance way at Booth west over to just past the entrance to the westerly most back lot on the property.

All 10 Legs of this walk-about have a blog post that go with them; those links are listed below, or at the link (and on the map - click on the drop-down menu icon, top-left on the map):

Ward 30 Bikes | A Map: 21 Don Roadway Walk-about - December 6, 2014 | http://ward30bikes.blogspot.ca/2014/12/a-map-21-don-roadway-walk-about.html

Before I could do much scouting, Cinespace security asked me to leave the lot. He indicated I might come back to do Ward 30 Bikes work when there wasn't three films shooting (When there were no films shooting, like ... apparently, security was a big to-do that day - bad timing.)

I was able to note before I was stopped that there is a fence about 25m from the graveled area of the back-lot - between the Cinespace Lot and the Port Authority's railway switching yards. So the CineSpce property is much bigger than the graveled lots that they are utilizing.

I'd like to check out the property line to the west and to the north next time - it'sthe only way to get a look at the UniLever site's back lots.

In the Google Street view image below I marked the point at which I was stopped by CineSpace Security. It turns out I was north of about halfway between Bouchette St and Saulter St S (relative to those streets south of LSB) when I was interrupted.

The treeline just beyond the rails in this Google Street view image marks the extent of the Port Authority's property - and the extent of the CineSpace property.

List of Blog posts for each Leg of the walk-about:

21 Don Roadway Walk-about - Leg #7: LDRT/Don Roadway Boulevard

Leg #7
Don Roadway Boulevard (Lever buildings, looking east)

This is Leg #7 of a preliminary walk of the 21 Don Roadway site. This leg (brown line) traveled from the CineSpace driveway down to the LDRT, west along the Trail to the Don Roadway; and then north on Don Roadway to the ramp for northbound DVP; and then onto the boulevard to the east of the Don Roadway and north up to the fence surrounding a disused roadway which travels under the railway bridge - northwest extent of the First Gulf site.

A list of the blogs about each of the 10 Legs of this walk-about are available below, or at the link, (and on the map - see drop-down menu icon, top-left on the map):

Ward 30 Bikes | A Map: 21 Don Roadway Walk-about - December 6, 2014 | http://ward30bikes.blogspot.ca/2014/12/a-map-21-don-roadway-walk-about.html

This series of photographs documents the view of the site from the boulevard to the west of the site beside the Don Roadway and the on-ramp for northbound DVP. Later I present images of the view of the highways and the river from this vantage point. Lastly I note a manhole cover on the boulevard, and ask if it might be a barrier to a Multi-use path north-south next to the Don Roadway.