Metrolinx launches design competition for Ontario Line

Submission deadline July 7

Ontario Construction News staff writer

Metrolinx has launched a design competition for the urban design and landscape around the existing rail corridor extending from Eastern Avenue to Gerrard Street in Toronto.

Submissions for the first stage of the two-stage process, including team compositions and a sample of past projects, are due July 7. Up to four teams will be selected to participate in the next stage of the design competition.

The winning team from the competition will receive a $100,000 honorarium for their design concept, and the three shortlisted design teams will receive honorariums of $25,000. The winning design concepts will be translated into tender documents by the Ontario Line Technical Advisor, contracted to Metrolinx.

The competition is a first-of-its-kind collaboration between the communities surrounding the corridor and Metrolinx, combining the vision and goals from community groups and local BIAs with Metrolinx’s objectives for the rail expansion.

The objective of the competition is to solicit creative design solutions to challenge of integrating the new Ontario Line into established neighbourhoods.

To accommodate the additional volume of the Ontario Line plus the GO Transit electrification expansion in the Riverside and Leslieville neighbourhoods, the rail corridor will be raised, widened, and bridges will be replaced. It is these infrastructural changes that have opened the opportunity for Metrolinx to run a design competition for the Joint Corridor.

The site of the competition runs along both sides of a two-kilometre stretch of rail corridor which will accommodate both the new Ontario Line and the expansion of GO Transit (a regional express rail system).

Metrolinx says proposals should use design excellence principles to transform these interfaces into a unique urban environment that enhances the adjacent neighbourhoods, commercial streets, and parklands.

The scope of the design competition includes the rail corridor to retaining walls, abutments, bridge underpasses, station plazas, aesthetic lighting, murals and other landscape items within four Community Zones.

The Ontario Line is a planned 15.6 km, 15-stop rapid transit line in Toronto connecting Exhibition Place, through downtown, to the Ontario Science Centre.

For more information about the competition, visit: https://www.metrolinxengage.com/en/content/ontario-line-neighbourhood-updates-east-ontario-line-joint-corridor-design-competition

The formal Request Document and Design Brief are available at: https://www.metrolinx.merx.com

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