City of Toronto’s Official Explanation for The Flooding at Union Station on June 1, 2012

This video shows the Flooding at Union Station – June 1/12:

On June 1, 2012:

  • a brief, but intense rainfall event caused a rapid surge of storm water flow within the City’s sewer collection system and wastewater treatment plants.
    • (The downtown area experienced rainfall ranging from 27mm to 37mm.)
  • The heavy rainfall event did not exceed the capacity of the entire sewer collection system.

The explanation of the flooding at Union Station is stated as follows:

As part of the contract for the TTC’s Union Station New Platform Project in the subway, the TTC’s contractor is also reconstructing a large sewer on behalf of the City for the Union Station Revitalization Project. To enable construction of the new lowered sewer, a section of the existing sewer was removed and pumps put in place in order to install maintenance holes at one of the future connection points. During the heavy rainstorm, sanitary and storm water overflowed from the open section of sewer at this location (flooding was localized to this area of the City).

Certain measures that are being put into place in order to avoid a recurrence during construction include:

  • the installation of two additional pumps on site as contingency
  • as well, the pipe that was temporarily exposed to perform this work will be capped by Friday
Union Station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Union Station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

NEWS RELEASE

June 6, 2012

City of Toronto and TTC investigation into flooding at Union Station

On the morning of June 1, a brief, but intense rainfall event caused a rapid surge of storm water flow within the City’s sewer collection system and wastewater treatment plants. (The downtown area experienced rainfall ranging from 27mm to 37mm.) The heavy rainfall event did not exceed the capacity of the entire sewer collection system.

As part of the contract for the TTC’s Union Station New Platform Project in the subway, the TTC’s contractor is also reconstructing a large sewer on behalf of the City for the Union Station Revitalization Project. To enable construction of the new lowered sewer, a section of the existing sewer was removed and pumps put in place in order to install maintenance holes at one of the future connection points. During the heavy rainstorm, sanitary and storm water overflowed from the open section of sewer at this location (flooding was localized to this area of the City).

The contractor and the project management team are working to put in place measures to avoid a recurrence during construction. One such measure includes the installation of two additional pumps on site as contingency. As well, the pipe that was temporarily exposed to perform this work will be capped by Friday.

Subway service on the Yonge-University line was suspended between Bloor and Osgoode stations at about 12:30 p.m. Friday. TTC crews pumped out the water from track level, cleaned the station, and tested safety critical components of the subway before service was able to resume at 11 p.m. During the service interruption, up to 118 shuttle buses were deployed along Yonge St. to bridge subway service.

Toronto is Canada’s largest city and sixth largest government, and home to a diverse population of about 2.7 million people. Toronto’s government is dedicated to delivering customer service excellence, creating a transparent and accountable government, reducing the size and cost of government and building a transportation city. For information on non-emergency City services and programs, Toronto residents, businesses and visitors can dial 311, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

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