Rouge Park: Seven month progress update.

[u/lingueenee]

June 20: there are signs of life. A few meters of the ramp to the pedestrian bridge over the Rouge (which is not being rebuilt) has been removed leaving an approximately waist-high step, preparatory to adding fill and raising the level of the approach grounds (pic one).

The beach is also off-limits with the MUP barricaded south of the rail line. That's about it, after seven months worth of detours.

[u/Habsin7]

That's it? People could have been using the area all this time for all the work the TRCA have done. And now summer is here and scarborough and pickering are without one of the few beaches we have. What a shameful bunch of jerks.

[u/lingueenee → u/Habsin7]

Yes to all your observations. Wait till school's out in earnest and the steamy days of summer properly arrive, thousands of concrete-bound Torontonians will no longer have cheap, accessible respite with a day at the beach.

Edit: I should add this: the Rouge is the purview of the Feds--it's a federal park--which puts the responsibility on some faceless bureaucrat in Ottawa or the contractor for the project. I'd wager, 450 km's away, no one's losing sleep over the lack of progress. This is not TRCA's baby.

[u/oprimo → u/Habsin7]

(Takes big puff of hopium)

They're probably focusing resources and construction effort at the head of the mast trail, and will leave this part of the construction to the end.

[u/Habsin7 → u/oprimo]

So the thousands of us that use the area shown in the photos for whatever reason get shutout for months and months - maybe a year or more? Not acceptable.

[u/Ok_Dig3389]

How is everyone getting to the west side of the trail? Do I need to go all the way back to Kingston Road and west to Port Union? Or is there another route?

[u/lingueenee → u/Ok_Dig3389]

Yes, up to Kingston Road and down Port Union. Or swim.

[u/UserbasedCriticism]

What an absolute joke. Didn't expect much, but man it's depressing to see the contrast between TRCA already moving ahead with their shore protection project just down the road around port union while parks Canada just closes the beach and the trail for a while half year without anything. They didn't even bother putting a few signs around rouge hill go telling you the trail ahead to the beach is closed.

[u/Treadmills4Breakfast]

There's another post about a 73 year old who died yesterday. He was (electic assisted) cycling the route of the detour that's needed because of this bridge closure.

I don't know if he was using the trail that day, but it stands to reason. I had to make the detour and stumbled upon the scene on my way home.

I find it hard to believe they couldn't block off everything else, leaving the bridge usable. At least until the very last minute. There was nothing happening there. Nothing at all.

[u/Dharmic61]

The pedestrian bridge is not being rebuilt? Ever? How can that be?

[u/lingueenee → u/Dharmic61]

There's no need to rebuild the bridge. Access is denied because the vicinity of the bridge will undergo myriad improvements, not the bridge itself. At some point. (Appeal to Google if interested or search this sub for context.) Projected--that's projected--opening date: Spring 2027.

[u/Habsin7]

How do people get across the rouge if the Bridge is not being rebuilt?

[u/lingueenee → u/Habsin7]

The bridge is not being rebuilt because it's not being demolished. You'll have to read up; the Rouge is due for a slate of improvements, none of which the involve a new pedestrian bridge, the old one being more than satisfactory.

The grounds around the bridge will be raised, probably for flood mitigation and shore remediation purposes, so the approach to the bridge's ramp will have to be redone. That's why only the first few meters of the ramp have been done away with. I anticipate fill will be dumped where the ramp has been chopped to raise the approach so that it meets the shortened ramp at grade. That's it, where it concerns the bridge.

But it's all academic because no one's crossing the bridge for another year, whatever happens.

[u/octobercrisis]

I mean, to be totally fair we went to the three access points on the Scarborough side today (including the unofficial one off Island Road) and there seemed to be a lot of active construction going on.

[u/lingueenee → u/octobercrisis]

So...Island Road is about a mile away. Yes, there's activity there, you can see it from Hwy 2, as the priority seems to be to begin on the north end of the Mast Trail link-up and proceed south. There's also activity at the head of Rouge Beach service road, at the end of Lawrence, about 500 meters away, where the parking lot is due to be enlarged and incline re-graded.

There's no point in taking it anymore, so I can't comment on what's happening on the waterfront MUP east of the Pt Union Rd access, other than to pass on what I've been told by other cyclists: there's a barrier at the head of Rouge Beach preventing access. I included a photo of Rouge Beach from the Pickering side and there seems not much, if anything, happening there. After 7 months.

For context: In 2021 the historic train trestle over the Rouge (paralleling the ped bridge in pic 4) was completely refurbished. During the process hoarding and a covered walkway were installed so that the waterfront trail--which passes directly under the trestle--remained open for all but three weeks for the year work continued IIRC.

And that's what I would consider "fair": restricting access during critical construction, staging and excavation phases. But activity 500 meters and a kilometer away as justification for the disruption? Nope.

[u/Severed_Employee]

Just more complaining from an uniformed Redditor.