Exploring 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. This and other reasons coincide to make Toronto's underground sewers and drains such compelling targets for research and exploration.
Feature Articles
Combined Sewers
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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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Rosedale Creek Sewer A small yellow-brick sewer that runs beneath Yorkville and the Annex |
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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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 and Grand Trunk Railway Drain 20th c. concrete and corrugated metal drain intersects 19th c. stone railway culvert |
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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 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 |
