After (way too many) months of a frustrating trail closure, the City is happy to announce the Lower Don Trail is now open again for your enjoyment and travel!
Belleville Underpass – Before and After
The section of the Lower Don Trail that was closed was south of Pottery Road to Riverdale Park Bridge. You can now bike, walk, run, and roll through this section and continue on north and south. Below is a gallery of photos of some of the completed upgrades, including the new Pottery Road trail bridge, Belleville rail underpass, Bayview multiuse connection, and new signs, art, seating , and surface repairs.
Thank you, to everyone, for your patience as we completed this work.
Join us on September 23, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. to celebrate! Ravine Days events on the Lower Don will include food, games, activities, and music at three stops: the Cloverleaf, Riverdale Park East, and the Don Landing. Bring yoga mats for free yoga at Riverdale.
All Ravine Day activities are listed at toronto.ca/ravines
See you on the trails!
Awesome! Can’t wait to check this out tomorrow and Sunday. Been waiting a long time to ride this trail.
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1.5 years gone. What a complete waste.
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Congratulations! It was a long frustrating wait … but hallelujah!
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I checked it out last Saturday. The new underpass is a vast improvement over the old culvert. Too bad the project was fraught with delays.
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Very nice, what a difference. Thanks to everyone involved in this. Your hard work is appreciated.
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when is the debrief meeting with the public to discuss what we have learned from this disaster of a project?
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Hallelujah!
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Yay! Will join you today for Ravine Days. Keep the grill warm, I’ll be hungry! 😀
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Trail users understand that improvements need to be made from time to time and appreciate the upgrades when they’re completed. The City has to be very careful with its messaging on how long the repairs will take and has to do a much better job in planning alternative routes to minimize inconvenience to users in consultation with other property/right of way owners. Hopefully lessons were learned with the underpass fiasco that will result in less frustration for everyone next time!
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And at what cost? It was fine just the way it was.Taxpayers should be given the opportunity to weigh in on whether monies could be spent otherwise,concerns such as housing,etc.What a sham!
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Steel culverts have a life cycle. Who knows how long it has been in place. In today’s day and age of ‘liability concerns’ what would we have thought if some bureaucrat had said, “Oh it’s 30 years old and has to be closed” (with no actual justification. Yes, we’ve been inconvenienced, l just hope the work south of this area doesn’t drag on and on. The thing I’m concrened with (and I’m no engineer) some of the areas that were repaved had coarser gravel laid down while other spots looked more like sand. I wonder how this will stand up to the elements?
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Now – how about a reasonable crossing with a traffic light for the trail crossing at Pottery Road? The sight lines are terrible and traffic doesn’t slow for cyclists and pedestrians. With the newly reopened trail and the new bridge both requiring the crossing there will be a lot of people getting impatient at the road crossing.
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Yes indeed good point Crisscross – a flashing yellow light with yellow sign and checker board pattern is probably needed, going both ways with maybe a speed bump. But that would be a different City Hall division, wouldn’t it. More bureaucracy (sigh). A healthy dose of common sense is needed, with all departments affected by a construction project, at a conference table when these projects are designed. Why would safety not address the concerns of cyclists crossing to the other side safely around a blind curve?!
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Thanks Stephen and Crisscross. I have forwarded your comments about the trail crossing to City staff in charge of these matters.
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You can add my name to the commenters with safety concerns. With the new cycling bridge over the Go tracks, the sightline for those heading north on the trail are terrible. Cyclists must come to a complete stop in order to cross the road, and even then they can’t see any vehicles coming around the corner on Pottery Road. For children or less confident cyclists the crossing is simply unsafe.
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Are there plans for more resurfacing? I noticed orange spray paint in several sections where tree roots are pushing up under the pavement. I’d thought that was going to be part of it and I was disappointed that the surface is still such a mess in some parts that were closed. Underpass and signage are great though.
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If that is in the area south of the bridge that crosses the river, I think that is Phase II. I hope they can get that repaving done in a more timely manner. Not sure what the City would have as a detour on either side of the DVP for cyclists. I haven’t ridden south towards Dundas or Queen on Broadview.
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For the length of the closure I was expecting so much more to have been done. I think not addressing the trail situation at the bottom of that first big hill south of Pottery was a missed opportunity. That same faded, torn and re-tied plastic fencing is there as the only barrier between the trail and the river bank that has eroded to the edge of the trail. For safety I was hoping more permanent fencing would be put up or the trial moved over. Also there is still a lot of soil etc that can be cleared from the trail edge around those corners after the hill so we have the widest possible trail area as blind curves at the bottom of a hill are not the safest spots. And lastly, the two garbage cans that were at the Pottery Rd south trail entrance were moved to the north trail entrance when construction started and there they remain. Can we please have those garbage receptacles moved back so there are two at each entrance as they are not visible from the south entrance and it’s not reasonable to expect people to cross Pottery to use them if they have no intention of heading in that direction. Thank you!
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Re Belleville Underpass: My question is,why does such a multi-million dollar project with major cost over-runs need to be built for a rail system that hasn’t been in use for decades anyways? This is just madness.
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Because Transport Canada says so.
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Actually, because Metrolinx says so. It’s their property and they are considering reactivating that track in the future. Previous commenters have written up details about it, but I can’t seem to find the specific comment post at the moment.
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Those new barriers on the new path on either side of the railway tracks at Pottery Rd need to be more visibile! How about some red or yellow reflector tape or a warning on the path that the barriers are there (especially coming northbound). Anyone coming around the corner northbound at speed is at risk of crashing into the barriers. Happened to me yesterday. They’re painted a dull grey and especially in low light light conditions will not be very visibile.
And to echo other comments here – a lot can be done to improve sightlines for people crossing over Pottery Rd. It’s not a safe corssing, especially for people who don’t do it frequently and don’t understand how quickly a car can come around the corner coming down Pottery Rd toward Bayview. Getting rid of a few trees and plants on the edge of the road would be an easy and helpful start.
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And what a novel idea also to have a huge concrete planter at the crossing dividing the lanes on Pottery Rd. which just happens to obscure oncoming traffic to riders.How many hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars did that pretty peice of s__t cost to install? And how just how much more will it cost to have it removed if there’s been an accident there because of it??
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Hello Mr. J. Diceman, Just wanted to say that my faith in humanity has been restored when today, I cycled north up the Don Trail and when I came to the new Belleville Underpass, I was delighted to see that the large stick on photos of people in the early 20th and 19th century had been repaired, replaced. One week after the official re-opening, the photos were vandalized with graffitti on the south and north sides and part of the photo in the tunnel had been ripped off. I was very disappointed to see this.
It’s great that it was all replaced. A fellow cyclist said that the city should put up large billboards so that graffitti artists can do their wonders on these boards instead of vandalizing.
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Can we get a (proposed) timeline and detour plans for the Phase 2 work on the trail? It would be instructive to see if there are any lessons the city learned being implemented for the 2018 work.
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Yes, we’ve been inconvenienced, l just hope the oeuvre south of this surface area doesn’t puff on and on. With the newly reopened lead and the new bridge circuit both requiring the crossing there will be a fortune of people getting raring(p) at the route crossing.
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