Tunnelling is now complete on the 10-kilometre underground tunnel of the Eglinton Crosstown Light Rail Transit (LRT) line.
On Aug. 17, tunnel boring machines (TBMs) Don and Humber, boring the eastern segment tunnels, arrived at Yonge Street having travelled 3,300 metres from where they started just east of Brentcliffe Road in September 2015. In total, Don and Humber installed 26,178 precast concrete tunnel segments, which formed 4,363 rings. TBMs Dennis and Lea completed tunnelling on the western segment of the Crosstown when they reached Yonge Street in May 2016.
A government news release says construction shoring is now underway on three Crosstown stations, including Keelesdale, Laird and Avenue, with preparatory demolition work underway, near completion or completed at Chaplin, Fairbank, Forest Hill, Mount Pleasant, Mount Dennis, Laird, Keelesdale, Avenue, Oakwood, Science Centre, Eglinton and Leaside.
The Eglinton Crosstown LRT is one of the largest public transit projects currently under construction in Canada. Ontario committed $5.3 billion in capital investment to the Crosstown project to further expand transit in Toronto.
At the peak of construction, approximately 2,500 workers will work on the project and 90 per cent of the labour will come from the Greater Toronto Area.
Construction on the Eglinton Crosstown LRT began in 2011 and the LRT will be in service by September 2021.
