Final Leg of Tunneling Underway for Eglinton Crosstown West

Crews have started digging the tunnels that will connect the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension to the existing terminus of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT (to be known as Line 5 Eglinton when it opens) at Mount Dennis Station, Metrolinx announced in April.

The extension will make Line 5 Eglinton another expansive east-west rapid transit line for the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), running all the way from Scarborough, through midtown Toronto and into Mississauga. The project will add seven new stations to Line 5 Eglinton’s 25 stations and stops.

Last year, the contract to design and build the second underground segment of the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension was awarded to Strabag Inc.

The 500-meter twin tunnels are being built using the sequential excavation method, which is often used for smaller sections of tunnels. With this method, the area to be tunneled is divided into smaller sections and excavated in sequence. Concrete is then sprayed onto the tunnel walls as the sections are excavated to reinforce the exposed walls. About one to two meters of tunnel are excavated each day.

Last spring, Renny and Rexy, the twin tunnel boring machines that excavated the western tunneled section of the line, completed their 6.3-kilometer journey. The twins spent two years carefully carving out two tunnels that start at Renforth Drive and end at Scarlett Road, where the future rapid transit line will come to the surface and transition to an above-ground section.

Construction is also marching ahead for another important segment of the line – the 1.5-kilometer elevated guideway that will run over the Humber River. Crews started work this spring on the foundations and piers of the bridge, which will span from just west of Scarlett Road to just east of Jane Street.

With major construction now underway across the entire route of the project, the vision of bringing more rapid transit to thousands of people in west Toronto and Mississauga is coming more and more into focus.