The OTrain multi-user path north of Carling OTrain Station isn’t plowed this year (the picture above is of a prior winter). Maybe that is due to the recent start of the Hickory Street bridge.

The bridge crosses the OTrain cut, connecting Hickory Street and the Civic Hospital Neighbourhood with Adeline Street and the Carling OTrain Station and the Preston Street commercial strip. The bridge is partially funded by Domicile and Starwood Mastercraft, builders of the condos on the Champagne side. Subsequent developers will also be dinged for contribution.

Ironically, the unplowed section is the most popular with walkers. To get around the construction fence necessitates and steep and icy scramble over a slope, both down and up again. No grit. No plowing. No temporary gravel path. Just goat trails.

Welcome to your challenge, Mountain Goats.

Here’s the view from the Carling side:

Trees and underbrush have been removed by chainsaw crews working at 3 in morning, to avoid disturbing OTrain operations. The picture below shows the missing trees, and the generous scramble space left for pedestrians around the fence:

Over on the Hickory (west) side, equipment has arrived indicating that a fair bit of excavation is planned:

 

The second drawing in the picture below shows the depths of the foundation work, so we can expect a significant hole to appear where the OTrain pathway is now. Looks like walking won’t get any easier this winter.

 

 

The city elected to with a arch structure for the bridge to play on the Little Italy Millenium Arch design just a block east, which is also similar to the Qway overpass arch. No word on red-white-green lighting, yet.

Late in the game, the city decided to add a steel bar safety railing, to deter suicides. These bars will be up to 8′ high. The bridge was designed to permit widening of the OTrain cut underneath for double tracking, leading up to the Carling Station.

The design of the intersection of the bridge path with the OTrain path hasn’t yet been done. It should be done as part of the OTrain path extension project (concurrently underway). Ideally, the intersection would be of a common design for the Hickory, Young, and Bayview intersections.

While this bridge won’t get the amount of attention the Corktown and Airport Parkway bridges did, it may generate similar volumes of traffic as the condos are built and Otrain frequency improves.