Mayor Ford inspects Gardiner
Toronto's mayor had a close-up look at the underside of one of his city's major highways on Friday morning and said "everything is being done" to keep concrete chunks from falling on cars and pedestrians.
"We're handling it as quickly as possible," Ford told a scrum underneath the Gardiner Expressway, which has been the cause of concern after three chunks of concrete fell from the structure in less than a month.
"One incident is a freak occurrence," said Coun. Denzil Minnan-Wong, chair of the city's public works committees
"A second incident becomes troubling. When you have a third incident happen then you start to connect data points and you have a trend. We saw a troubling trend and we wanted to make sure that the Gardiner Expressway is safe," he said.
Minnan-Wong said city engineers are making visual inspections, taking chip samples and addressing any potential problems.
He said he hopes the inspections will be over soon. Any walkways or traffic lanes deemed unsafe will be blocked off.
"We're on top of this and we're getting things done quickly," Ford said.
The top priority, according to the mayor, is making sure nothing happens to the thousands of pedestrians or drivers who pass under the elevated expressway every day.
"Safety comes first," Ford said.
