Future of the Gardiner Expressway - Nanos Research

Comparative AnalysisKEY CASE STUDY LESSONS• Solutions come in different shapesand sizes.• Transportation solutions should beseen through the lens of city-buildingand quality of life.• Transportation uses are continuallyevolving – changes in demographics,economics, and lifestyle effect trafficdemand.• Traffic demand can be managed.• Transportation infrastructure offersextraordinary opportunities for design,creativity, and new public realm.• Infrastructure does not have to besingle-purpose or boring.• The public sector must be strategic inorder to capture value of investmentsin infrastructure to serve both communityand development goals.• City-building projects of this magnituderequire vision and activecommitment at the highest levels ofleadership – mayors, governors, andcity councils. Moreover, the full rangeof stakeholder input, from support toopposition, must be understood andresponded to substantively.The Gardiner Expressway is 2.4 km long (1.5miles) elevated highway. Its construction wascompleted in 1966. The six-lane highway(three lanes in both directions) carries120,000 vehicles per day in the area betweenJarvis Street and Leslie Street.The Gardiner passes through mostly industrialland on the Lake Ontario waterfront. Thearea includes East Bay Front and LowerDon Lands, two precincts currently beingplanned by Waterfront Toronto. A railroadembankment forms a barrier between theseprecincts and three medium-density, mixeduseneighborhoods upland – St. Lawrence, theDistillery District, and West Don Lands.In terms of scale and urban context, theGardiner Expressway is most similar, amongthe case studies, to the Embarcadero Freewayin San Francisco; Bonaventure Expressway inMontreal; Alaskan Way Viaduct in Seattle; andF.D.R. Drive in New York City.The 12 case studies in this report wereanalyzed from the combined perspectives ofurban design, open space and public realm,transportation, and economic development.Applying these four lenses revealed overalllessons that may resonate for the currentGardiner study. These lessons follow.It is important to note that whereas about halfof the case studies are built, others are still inplanning and design stages. In this way, thecases offer both lessons from implementationand inspiration for design ideas.Solutions come in different shapesand sizes.The case studies reflect a diversity ofapproaches – which suggests there is nosingle strategy for addressing elevated highwayissues. Design and development strategiesundertaken by cities depend on physicalcontext, transportation needs, public realmgoals, and available resources, among otherfactors.New York City, for example, had over US $1billion in federal funds available to createa 8.3 km (5 mile) urban boulevard. Theboulevard is abundantly landscaped andincludes a bicycle greenway. In contrast, theAmsterdam suburb Zaanstadt took a moremodest approach. It choose to live with anelevated highway by improving the spaceunderneath with a grocery and recreationprograms. The project cost €2.7 million.Though these solutions have different scalesand costs, both became equally significantpublic gathering spaces for their respectivecity.Transportation solutions should beseen through the lens of city-buildingand quality of life.Elevated highway removal decisions areconventionally measured against transportationcriteria – level of service, travel time, etc.However, ambitious cities like San Franciscoand Montreal have viewed their highwaysfrom a different perspective. They have setgoals for waterfront access, public realm,transportation, sustainability, and development,then accessed how their highways will have tochange to achieve these greater urban goals.Transportation uses are continuallyevolving – changes in demographics,economics, and lifestyle effect trafficdemand.The highways of the mid-20th century,particularly in the United States, weredesigned with specific goals in mind. One keyplanning agenda was to connect downtownsto suburbs. Planners also sought to linkindustrial waterfronts to the new interstatehighway system.In some cases studied, city agencies foundthat these historic goals no longer apply.Moreover, while there is always concern abouturban highway congestion, sometimes trafficdemand actually decreases over time.In Chattanooga, for example, RiverfrontParkway no longer served as a though-routefor industrial trucking in the Tennessee River16Future of the Gardiner Expressway