{"id":12005,"date":"2023-01-21T12:56:08","date_gmt":"2023-01-21T20:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/tunnelling-for-scarborough-subway-gets-underway-with-diggy-scardust\/"},"modified":"2023-01-21T12:56:10","modified_gmt":"2023-01-21T20:56:10","slug":"tunnelling-for-scarborough-subway-gets-underway-with-diggy-scardust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/tunnelling-for-scarborough-subway-gets-underway-with-diggy-scardust\/","title":{"rendered":"Tunnelling for Scarborough Subway Gets Underway With ‘Diggy Scardust’"},"content":{"rendered":"

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One of the many myths about late Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is that he always chanted “Subways, subways, subways,” whenever someone asked him about the transit future of Scarborough. Now, however, the Scarborough subway dream is turning into reality, according to recent news from Metrolinx<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Map of the “Scarborough Subway” project, image courtesy of Metrolinx<\/span><\/p>\n

The provincial transit agency recently announced that its contractor has launched a tunnel-boring machine (or ‘TBM’) nicknamed Diggy Scardust from a site near Sheppard Avenue East and McCowan Road, marking a major milestone for the ‘Scarborough Subway Extension’ project. That project, one of four that the late mayor’s brother, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, announced in April 2018<\/a>, extends the TTC’s Danforth Line 2 subway northeastward beyond the current Kennedy terminal, going three stations deeper into Toronto’s eastern suburbs.<\/span><\/p>\n

A closer look at the TBM in the launch shaft near Sheppard Avenue East and McCowan Road, as it starts to dig, image courtesy of Metrolinx<\/span><\/p>\n

During the next two years, the TBM will travel 10 to 15 metres per day, moving southward from the launch-shaft site toward Eglinton Avenue East and Midland Avenue. It will dig about 6.9 kilometres of the 7.8-kilometre tunnel for the future subway. Unlike most of the recent Toronto transit projects with tunnels, which have had two TBMs drilling parallel twin shafts, the Scarborough subway extension project is a single-bore tunnel. Metrolinx explains that, “At 10.7 metres wide, this will be the first subway tunnel in Toronto to contain two subway tracks operating in both directions.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Crews have already started working at the project\u2019s extraction shaft site, where they’ll extract the TBM from the ground after it completes its tunnelling journey.<\/span><\/p>\n

In May 2021, Metrolinx and its provincial partner Infrastructure Ontario<\/a> (IO) awarded a fixed-price contract of $757.1 million to Strabag<\/b> to design, build and finance the tunnel for the Scarborough Subway Extension project.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Strabag team includes:<\/span><\/p>\n

A drone photo of the large excavation for the TBM at the launch shaft site, image courtesy of Metrolinx<\/span><\/p>\n

The scope of work includes:<\/span><\/p>\n