By Lynda Myer
Digging process has been completed at the Finch West Light Rail Transit (LRT) project’s Humber College Station in Toronto, following 18 months of challenging work.
Considering the removal of over 200,000m3 of soil from both the station box and the portal area that leads into the station from Finch Avenue West, it is by far the biggest excavation on the Finch West LRT project.
The work needed boring underneath two roof structures for Highway 27, which were constructed from the top down and linked the portal to the station structure beneath Humber College Boulevard.
According to Eric Chiasson, Mosaic Transit Group’s construction manager for the site: “Finch Avenue West is busy enough, but excavating a below-surface light rail transit station next to a major hospital and a busy college requires strong safety processes and a lot of attention to detail.”
He also added: “We excavated around and underneath storm sewers, water mains, communication lines, and high-voltage power cables, dug under a busy roadway, and overcame so many logistical challenges to get to this point.”
In order to design, build, finance, and maintain the Finch West Light Rail Transit project, Infrastructure Ontario and Metrolinx granted the C$2.5bn contract to Mosaic Transit Group in 2018.
Comprising a below-grade terminal stop at Humber College, 16 surface stops, as well as an underground interchange station at Keele Street that connects with the new Finch West Subway Station on the Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension, the 11km LRT also includes a maintenance and storage facility for the light rail vehicles and other required components, such as trackwork, signaling, communications, and public infrastructure.
