Ward 30 Bikes : 21 Don Roadway Walk-about - Leg #10: Lake Shore Boulevard Bridge

Leg #10
Lake Shore Boulevard Bridge

Walk-about Leg #10 from the December 6, 2014 preliminary walk-about of the proposed 21 Don Roadway neighbourhood development by First Gulf.

See the route map for this site walk and links to all the other nine blog entries about this walk at the link, or below (also linked on the map).

Each blog contains images and resources about each specific perimeter section of this 30 acre site:

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

Images in this post were taken while standing on the Lake Shore Boulevard Bridge across the Don River canal right under the Gardiner Expressway (lime green line on the map).

While on this walk I asked myself - what opportunities are there to connect the River to a new neighbourhood northeast of Lake Shore Boulevard and the mouth of the Don River?

I imagine a bio-swale park between the river and the community - a wet-dry park. Plus a bio-swale sluiceway, a wet-dry egress for water that would fill a wet-dry lake-park inside the 21 Don Roadway neighbourhood site - a park that would fill with storm water only during torrential rain events when run-off from the sprawl-burbs crested the Lower Don River. This would connect the River to the neighbourhood and help reduce flooding in the Lower Don River valley, and on the regulatory flood plain (which is the City south of Eastern Avenue all the way to Coxwell Avenue.).

Here's an edited version of the TRCA's Don Mouth Regulatory Floodplain diagram for reference:

TRCA http://www.trca.on.ca/dotAsset/93495.pdf - p. 3

"..

2.1 Problem Assessment
The configuration of the existing Don Mouth was engineered primarily for the purposes of achieving transportation efficiency and to create additional land for port and other urban uses. This has resulted in the current condition with lands vulnerable to flooding, a serious reduction in ecological function of the river mouth, and an area that is neither aesthetically pleasing nor available for public use and enjoyment. Thus, the problems to be addressed by the DMNP are the lack of ecological function at the river mouth, vulnerability to flood risk, and the derelict nature of this area of the Port Lands.

..."

(from TRCA, Don Mouth Naturalization Project, Chapter 2 - Purpose of the Undertaking, page 1 - http://www.trca.on.ca/dotAsset/93495.pdf )

Images from the neighbourhood site preliminary walk - Saturday, December 6, 2014.