TORONTO — Tunnelling the western underground portion of the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension has finished, the Ontario Government announced recently, marking a significant milestone in the province’s plan to create a transit line connecting communities from the east end of Toronto to Etobicoke and Mississauga.
The two 6.3-kilometre tunnels along Eglinton Avenue West bring the extension from Renforth Drive to Scarlett Road, where the future line will come to the surface and transition to an elevated guideway.
During the tunnelling process, two tunnel boring machines excavated 1.2 million tonnes of soil and rock, installed more than 7,400 concrete tunnel liner rings to support the tunnel walls and dug 93 per cent of the underground portion of the line.
For the next phase of the project, work will continue at the extraction shaft at Scarlett Road to build the structure where the trains will emerge from the tunnels. Preparations will also get underway to begin tunnelling the eastern underground portion of the line that will run from east of Jane Street to Mount Dennis Station.