PROJECT SPOTLIGHT
Keller’s crawler cranes putting the BC 40 Hydromill
and Mechanical Clam Bucket in place
Toronto’s Port Lands
The site’s potential has long sat unrealized and under threat
by flooding, and the ambitious Port Lands Flood Protection
and Enabling Infrastructure Project seeks to fix all that
By Paul Adair
Located at the mouth of the Don River, Toronto’s
Port Lands was created over decades by infilling
what was once one of the largest wetlands on Lake
Ontario. The area is one of the largest underdeveloped
stretches of downtown waterfront in North
America; long considered undevelopable due to its
vulnerability to flooding from extreme weather events
brought on by climate change.
The attempt to create value in the Port Lands is nothing
new for the City of Toronto. Over the last decade,
Waterfront Toronto, Toronto and Region Conservation
Authority, the Toronto Port Lands Company and the
City have all worked together to find a solution that
could develop this underused waterfront property to
generate significant economic opportunities, in addition
to protecting southeastern portions of downtown
Toronto from potential flood damage.
The result of this collaboration has been the ambitious,
$1.25 billion Port Lands Flood Protection and
Enabling Infrastructure Project (PLFPEI) that first
broke ground in November 2018.
PLFPEI is one of the most intensive earth moving
projects in recent history, requiring the excavation,
movement and placement of more than one million
cubic metres of soil and fill (more than enough to fill
PILING CANADA 39