Toronto's Sewers and Drains
Toronto is a city at once obsessed and oblivious to the water that lies all around and beneath it. From the endless saga surrounding waterfront redevelopment and the future of our lakefront highway to the periodic health panics and ever-intensifying infrastructure that has mediated our relationship with Lake Ontario, water has loomed large, yet it has been all-but-excluded from the environment of our daily urban experiences.
Feature Articles
Combined Sewers
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Earlscourt and Junction Sewers Trunk sewer built c. 1914 to provide sewerage to newly annexed western suburbs |
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East Toronto Combined Sewer Arched concrete sewer with brick floor runs beneath Kingston Road before being intercepted |
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Garrison Creek Sewer Exploring Toronto's most lamented lost creek |
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High Park Trunk Sewer Small arch brick sewer built 1914 to drain new development above High Park |
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Midway Combined Sewer Balloon-shaped brick pipe flows down from the Danforth and into the MTI. |
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Rosedale Creek Sewer A small yellow-brick sewer that runs beneath Yorkville and the Annex |
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York Central and Eastern Trunk Sewer 1920s concrete arch sewer drains the old Borough of York east of the Black Creek |
Overflow and Relief Sewers
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Bluffer's Park Overflow Sewer Pipe leads to small arched conduit leads to CSO dropshaft |
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East Toronto and Midway Overflow Sewer Overflow and storm sewer network connected to the Midway and East Toronto sewers |
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Garrison Creek Relief Sewer Arched sewer built c.1912 to relieve the original Garrison Creek Sewer south of Dundas St. |
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Garrison Creek Sewer (overflow) The overflow portion of the Garrison Creek Sewer |
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Parkside Drive Relief Sewer Built c. 1910 to provide relief for the High Park Storage Tanks |
Storm Sewers
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Belt Line Sewer A complicated network providing drainage and overflow for Forest Hill |
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Culvert for Bayview Extension Triple-barrelled cut-and-cover concrete drain for Yellow Creek fragment |
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Dufferin Creek Storm Sewer 1970s concrete storm sewer drains fuel terminals and industrial park E. of York University |
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Duncan Woods Creek Storm Sewer c. 1970 concrete storm sewer drains Hillcrest, Seneca Heights, Highway 404 |
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Garrison Creek West Branch Storm Trunk Relief Sewer 1960s deep concrete storm sewer relieves west side of Garrison watershed |
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Garrison East Branch Storm Trunk Sewer 1970s era deep storm sewer shadows Bathurst Street beneath the Annex |
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Glendale Avenue Storm Sewer 1960s concrete storm sewer built as relief for Earlscourt and Emerson |
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Highway 410 Culvert A culvert under the 410-403-401 Interchange that seems longer than it actually is |
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Highway 427 (South) Storm Sewers Storm trunk sewer draining Highway 427 south of 401 |
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Highway 427-409 Storm Sewers and Detention Ponds Stormwater management system added to the 427/409 interchange |
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Lavender Creek Culvert 20th c. concrete and corrugated metal drain |
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Morningside and Malvern Storm Trunk Sewers 1970s large-diameter RCP trunk storm sewer network in outer Scarborough |
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North Toronto Storm Trunk Sewer Another Metro-built trunk storm sewer from the 1960s |
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North York Storm Trunk Sewer Large conduit built 1960s by Metro to relieve sewers near the Spadina Expressway |
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Spadina Storm Trunk Sewer One of the largest drains in Toronto, built by Metro for the Spadina Expressway |
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Wilket Creek Storm Trunk Sewer Massive storm conduit built in the 1960s-70s to bury a major North York creek |
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Wilson Brook Storm Sewer Concrete and corrugated metal in a drain whose installation was indefensibly misguided. |
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Wilson Heights Storm Trunk Sewer Northernmost of the Spadina Expressway storm sewers built by Metro |
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Yellow Creek Drain Drains the sewer-fed fragment of Yellow Creek from David A. Balfour Park to the Don River |
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York University Storm Sewer Small concrete storm sewer drains the 1960s portion of the York University campus |
Have a suggestion, question or comment about this article, or anything else on the website? Send an e-mail to the author at michael@vanishingpoint.ca, or use this contact form.
Michael Cook is available to speak to your organization about infrastructure history, lost creeks, current conditions, and opportunities for change in our management of and communication about urban watersheds, and to work with teams proposing or implementing such change. Get in touch.
Michael Cook is available to speak to your organization about infrastructure history, lost creeks, current conditions, and opportunities for change in our management of and communication about urban watersheds, and to work with teams proposing or implementing such change. Get in touch.
