Island life coming to Humber?

[Innsertnamehere]

Island life coming to Humber?



The earth dug out for the Eglinton light rail transit line could be turned into islands in Lake Ontario.

At least that’s one proposal as the city considers ways to improve the water quality off some of Toronto’s Lake Ontario beaches.

The string of islands would go in at the mouth of the Humber River and extend about one kilometre from shore. The plan would take clean fill from construction jobs to build a solid earth barrier underwater that would deflect polluted Humber River water out into the lake and away from Sunnyside Beach.

Above the water, the feature would look like a string of small islands that could be landscaped, support wildlife and made accessible to the public, city councillors on the public works committee were told Tuesday.

thestar.com
Paul Moloney
http://www.thestar.com/news/transpor...ming-to-humber

would certainly be interesting..

[Chadillaccc]

That's a pretty awesome idea.

I wonder if they could also build like a form of a delta for the Humber, as the vegetation in a delta helps filter water. Interesting...

[BIMBAM]

You should definitely do this. When we built the metro in Montreal, we used the earth to build Ile Ste. Helene where we hosted Expo 67. It's huge, home to an amusement park, festival grounds a metro station and extensive parks. It worked out great for us and in land hungry Toronto I bet this would work even better. I think it would be a better sell, however, to build it as one big island, build a bridge, and give it a human use rather than let it go to nature. Better chances of it getting funding, and in such a prime location I'm sure the people of Toronto could find a very unique purpose for it, possibly even an iconic one that could help define the city in the way that liberty island's strategic location and use defines New York and its skyline.

Check out Ile Ste. Helene on google maps, it'll amaze you knowing that it didn't exist just a few decades ago. Perhaps this theoretical island could even be expanded with further subway excavations to produce even more valuable lake front property. With PPP perhaps this idea could even help fund the transit expansions themselves.

[telyou]

Well Toronto already has something similar to that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_Islands

If this Humber Island can help keep Sunnyside Beach clean and allow people to swim in it again then it would be a huge plus. Even if the island is kept as nature only. Hopefully a bridge can connect it for pedestrians and bicycles.

As for an Ile Ste-Helene type of development, there's always Ontario Place for that as well as the Toronto Islands which are barely developed to begin with.

[skyscraper03]

Toronto is extremely boring in terms of natural features like river, island, mountains, and so on.
In other words, you make a city on a flat land, colour half of them with blue.
That's as simple as Toronto's geography is. lol

I think something like this in a bigger scale for human purpose(as the city's southern expansion) will transform Toronto into a higher and richer class.

[Innsertnamehere]

Originally Posted by skyscraper03

Toronto is extremely boring in terms of natural features like river, island, mountains, and so on.
In other words, you make a city on a flat land, colour half of them with blue.
That's as simple as Toronto's geography is. lol

I think something like this in a bigger scale for human purpose(as the city's southern expansion) will transform Toronto into a higher and richer class.

Toronto is not without major geographical features. it is on one of the worlds largest freshwater lakes. It is also littered with amazingly under-valued valleys.

[waterloowarrior]

There is the Escarpment and Oak Ridges Moraine in the 905... plus Toronto has its share of valleys and hills.

[skyscraper03]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

Toronto is not without major geographical features. it is on one of the worlds largest freshwater lakes. It is also littered with amazingly under-valued valleys.

Then it is time to think about why it is amazingly under-valued.
I know Toronto is less flat and simple than cities like Chicago. I personally think Don Valley could be a more significant urban geographic refreshment than Chicago River.
It might be the city master plan to blame.

The way it's devastated by the giant urban highways for instance...
I think fundamental mistakes that people refuse to fix has to be fixed.

Money seems to be always the primary concern/excuse, but the money Harper is planning to spend for fighter jets could easily remove the old concrete wall between the lake and the city.
(I mean undergrounding the Gardiner Expressway.)