Tunneling Wraps Up on Eglinton Crosstown West Extension

Crews have completed tunneling on the 500-metre twin tunnels that will run between Jane Street and Mount Dennis Station and connect the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension to Line 5 Eglinton, Metrolinx announced Aug. 17.

Construction on the final set of tunnels started last February. These tunnels – part of Advance Tunnel Contract 2 – were 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 1 to 2 m of tunnel are excavated each day using this construction method.   

These tunnels aren’t the only ones for the project. In 2024, Renny and Rexy, the twin tunnel boring machines that excavated the western tunneled section of the line under Advance Tunnel Contrat 1, completed their 6.3-km 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. 

Although tunnelling is now complete for the project, work along the 9.2-km extension of Line 5 Eglinton is in full swing, with excavation starting on the extension’s four underground stations at the Martin Grove, Kipling, Islington and Royal York intersections, and with construction of the 1.5-km elevated guideway well underway.  

The extension will make Line 5 Eglinton another expansive east-west rapid transit line for the Greater Toronto Area, 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, bringing transit closer to 37,500 more people and 23,600 more jobs.