Construction has begun on a 7.3-acre park what will feature prominently in the new
West Don Lands neighbourhood.
"It's the anchor of the
West Don Lands," says James Roche, Waterfront Toronto's director of parks, design and construction of the $26.6-million federally and provincially funded project, "a large, huge park that will be connected to streets and pathways and trails along the Don river. The east-west streets of the new developments will all terminate at the park."
The park is being built on the nearly completed
Flood Protection Landform, designed by the Toronto and Region Conservancy Authority and built by the
Ontario Realty Corporation, which is meant to protect the West Don Lands from the Don's regular flooding, and the downtown core from the less frequent sort of extreme flooding we haven't seen for the last 60 years or so.
"We're long overdue for a similar storm to [Hurricane]
Hazel," Roche says, "and this is a measure put in place for that."
Ground was broken last Wednesday, and construction has now begun on the pavilion, which should be completed next April. The southern portion of the park as a whole should be done by fall, 2011, according to Roche, and the rest of it by spring, 2012.
Writer: Bert Archer
Source: James Roche
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