PHOTOS: View from the sky of massive LRT project in Mississauga
Published January 25, 2024 at 12:31 pm
Two huge tunnels being dug out for a major new light-rail transit line being built in east Mississauga are nearing completion after almost two years of daily digging.
Project leaders at Metrolinx, the provincial agency in charge of the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension transit initiative, said that as of Jan. 19 the two massive tunnel-boring machines (TBMs) tasked to do the job had each passed the five-kilometre mark of their underground work.
The ECWE is a 9.2-kilometre above ground/underground LRT route that will take the Eglinton Crosstown LRT in Toronto farther west and “bring much-needed rapid transit to Etobicoke and Mississauga.”
When completed in roughly eight years, the ECWE will link east Mississauga and likely Pearson Airport as well with parts of west Toronto. With project completion anticipated by 2030-31, the new route will bring the Eglinton Crosstown LRT line from Toronto west to Renforth Dr. in east Mississauga.
A proposal to extend the ECWE an additional 4.7 kilometres from Renforth Dr. to Pearson Airport in Mississauga is also being strongly considered.
In their Jan. 19 update, project leaders noted on social media that the two massive TBMs were making steady progress.
The TBMs, earlier dubbed Renny and Rexy, had travelled 5.15 kilometres and 5.01 kilometres, respectively, as of last Friday.
They went into the ground in early and mid-2022 and are expected to complete their work in the next several weeks or so. The TBMs are travelling eastward at a rate of 10 to 15 metres per day.
Officials say the TBMs “are entering the final leg of their journey before they are brought to the surface at the extraction shaft at Scarlett Road.”
Updates on Renny and Rexy’s progress can be found on the ECWE’s TBM tracker.
Meanwhile, project leaders said last month they reached a milestone by awarding the contract to design and build the elevated section, or guideway, of the ECWE to Aecon Infrastructure Management Inc., headquartered in Toronto.
Photos above are the latest aerial shots of the ECWE as work continues. (Photos: Metrolinx)
When finished, the ECWE will operate underground from Renforth Dr. in Mississauga to just west of Scarlett Rd. in Toronto, where it will then transition to a 1.5-km elevated section that runs east of Jane St. before heading underground again and connecting to the future Mount Dennis Station.
The new LRT line is expected to cut greenhouse gas emissions by some 39,000 tonnes each year, project leaders say.
Map shows the extent to date that the two tunnels have been dug out (green line) and the extent of the route that still needs to be tunnelled (black line).