Mayor Norm Kelly, left, and the city's general manager of transportation Stephen Buckly hold a media conference on Thursday. - Staff photo/DAVID NICKLE
Pondering flood protection for Don Valley Parkway, Bayview Extension
Preventing floods on the Don Valley Parkway like the one that happened during heavy rains Wednesday night will be expensive – and could involve realigning the DVP itself.
Mayor Norm Kelly, left, and the city's general manager of transportation Stephen Buckly hold a media conference on Thursday. - Staff photo/DAVID NICKLE
Preventing floods on the Don Valley Parkway like the one that happened during heavy rains Wednesday night will be expensive – and could involve realigning the DVP itself.
"Nothing cheap," said Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly of the work needed to keep motorists dry on the Don Valley Parkway and Bayview Extension in the future.
On June 25, both roadways were flooded, stranding motorists, after a storm cell dropped heavy rains in the Don Valley.
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It was just less than a year after the heavy storm that flooded the Don Valley, parts of the city’s downtown and Etobicoke.
Kelly, accompanied by the city’s transportation deputy city manager Stephen Buckley, said that while city staff responded well to the crisis thanks to an early-warning system of sensors in streams and rivers, ultimately there will have to be larger investments.
"These are strategic challenges that the city faces," said Kelly.
"Many urban regions will face them as a result of climate change. In the interim, before you review all the potential options, you have to deal with the stuff that’s happening to you on an increasingly frequent basis. But those are tactical responses. The city at the same time is thinking strategically. And the impact of strategic plans in the future – they’ll be very expensive and they’ll results in improvements that all Torontonians will appreciate."
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The city is working on three main projects for flood mitigation, said Buckley.
An inter-agency and department study is taking place for flood mitigation on the lower Donlands, with various measures that could reduce the risk.
As well, the city is looking at the implications of changing both the Bayview Extension and the Don Valley Parkway itself – changes that could include actually moving the roadways out of what Buckley characterized as "the increasingly growing flood plain."
The Don Valley Parkway might be kept dry, said Buckley, by another system, using check valves to divert water that first backs up in pipes.
But in the end, Kelly said he was certain all of the responses would be too costly for the Toronto taxpayers to bear on their own.
"I have a sense that the scale of these investments would invite the participation of other levels of government," he said.
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