Innovation and careful co-ordination have become defining features of a $63.7-million project to rehabilitate four aging bridges spanning a combined length of approximately 1.5 kilometres in a heavily congested section of east-end Toronto.
The project, which began in 2024 and is scheduled for completion in early 2027, covers the rehabilitation of the Eastern Avenue Bridge, the Richmond Street East Bridge over King Street East, the Adelaide Street East Bridge, which also crosses King Street East, and the Don Valley Parkway off-ramp over the Don River connecting with Richmond Street.
Soncin Construction is serving as the general contractor and is overseeing an extensive range of rehabilitation work on both the bridge decks and their undersides. The scope includes, among other tasks, the replacement of expansion joints and the reconstruction of deck overhangs and parapet walls.
Stantec is the consultant on the project, which has now entered its final stages.
Constructed in 1963, the four bridges were last rehabilitated in 1992. According to Toronto chief engineer Jennifer Graham Harkness, the current work represents an important part of the city’s State of Good Repair initiative.
With all four bridges located close to one another, several unrelated construction projects also taking place nearby and thousands of vehicles travelling through the area every day, the City of Toronto carried out extensive long-range planning before construction began. Innovative procedures have also continued to play an important role throughout the project.
“We’re trying to balance our goals in terms of getting work done and easing congestion along with making sure that we get very high-quality work and working with the contractor in order to accomplish both.”
One example was the use of a specialized Rapid Deployment Unit system by Harrison Muir Inc. to coat structural steel on the undersides of the bridges without closing lanes on the Don Valley Parkway.
The Don Valley Parkway is the area’s principal north-south highway and one of Toronto’s busiest transportation corridors. Using enclosed access, crews were able to safely carry out sandblasting and coating work above live traffic on the parkway.
The project has also required a high level of co-ordination with Metrolinx, Waterfront Toronto and private developers in an effort to reduce the impact of construction activities on their respective projects.
Graham Harkness pointed to the rehabilitation schedule for the Don Valley Parkway off-ramp as one example of this approach. The work was carefully planned to avoid interfering with regular maintenance operations carried out on the parkway by city crews.
The scale and complexity of the rehabilitation required multiple specialized crews to operate throughout the project. Depending on construction requirements, between three and five crews could be working onsite at the same time.
“These included dedicated teams for structural jacking and bearing replacement, steel coating, electrical work, paving, waterproofing and concrete demolition and forming, rebar installation, traffic control and finishing elements such as railings.”
To meet the accelerated construction schedule, the contractor introduced extended working hours and flexible scheduling. Crews operated in two extended shifts, covering approximately 20 hours during each 24-hour cycle.
The most intensive phase of construction occurred during the full closure of the Don Valley Parkway off-ramp, which began in fall 2025 and lasted until the ramp reopened this past spring.
A total of 80 overnight shifts were used to accelerate critical rehabilitation activities. Weekend work was also strategically incorporated into the schedule, including frequent Saturday daytime operations as well as selected Friday night and Sunday night shifts, depending on construction requirements.
While stressing that the rehabilitation program is fundamentally part of Toronto’s State of Good Repair policy, Graham Harkness acknowledged that the accelerated work on the Don Valley Parkway off-ramp was also influenced by the recent FIFA games.
“We didn’t know the full details of the FIFA games when planning started and the original plan was to work through the games.”
However, shortly after the project began in 2024, the city made the decision to accelerate the work in order to complete it before the games got underway.
Although the bridge construction site is located several kilometres from Toronto Stadium — the corporate FIFA name used for BMO Field — Graham Harkness noted that traffic patterns across the city are interconnected and that disruptions in one area can have wider ripple effects.
The 15-kilometre Don Valley Parkway, which links Toronto’s northern suburbs with the downtown area, is a major transportation artery into the city.
Ultimately, the overriding objective throughout the project has been to keep traffic moving while minimizing disruption to the surrounding community. That approach was also behind the decision to fully close the off-ramp to Richmond Street rather than carry out the rehabilitation through intermittent closures and sporadic construction work.
“We wanted to get in there, get it done (the repairs) and then get out.”
Most of the highly complex rehabilitation work on the four bridges has now been completed. However, undercoating and several remaining activities will continue into early next year before the project reaches its final completion.
