Dillon Consulting Limited provided Environmental Assessment Planning and Engineering services for the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority’s Eastern and Broadview Flood Protection Project Class Environmental Assessment.
The objective of the project was to identify a flood protection solution that will prevent flooding of the 8 hectares of flood vulnerable land that remains on the east side of the Don River north of the Metrolinx railway embankment in the City of Toronto. This needed to be done in order to facilitate the redevelopment of the Unilever Precinct. The area was extremely complex and included a number of ongoing city building initiatives. There were multi-modal transportation and transit initiatives being planned there, as well as major redevelopment applications. In addition, the area also included historical contamination and a large number of active and abandoned underground utilities and infrastructure.
Dillon was retained by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) to lead the completion of a Schedule C Municipal Class Environmental Assessment (MCEA). Our team led the work related to environmental planning, transportation engineering, feasibility and cost analysis, natural environment, project management, and consultation. We worked collaboratively with a flood protection engineering design team to identify flood protection alternatives, undertake an evaluation of the alternatives and complete the identification, effects assessment and mitigation plans for the preferred design.
This work required our team to collaborate with many stakeholders and agency representatives. The complex utility and servicing conditions in the study area required working closely with utility companies and operators to identify solutions to protect, reconstruct, and/or reinforce underground infrastructure to allow for flood protection measures to be put in place above the utilities and servicing. This also required working with land owners as most of the study area is on privately owned land. The identification of construction staging and initial cost estimates was led by Dillon and included workshop sessions with key agencies given the infrastructure complexity.
Additionally, Dillon led the public consultation for this assignment. Our team managed all community liaison committee (CLC) meetings and public meetings, including designing meeting plans, preparing materials, advising on outreach, and facilitating events.
This EA and the following design and construction of the flood protection project enables one of the largest areas of revitalization in the City of Toronto.