We’re working reconnect the Don River to Lake Ontario by creating a naturalized river mouth. This work will protect a large area of Toronto’s southeastern downtown from flooding. To do this we are undertaking one of the biggest infrastructure projects in Toronto’s history!

We are creating two new outlets for the Don River so that floodwaters can run off into the inner harbour instead of damaging the surrounding neighbourhoods. This work involves digging a kilometre-long river valley, as well as creating greenspace and parkland, and new roads and bridges.

Construction began in 2018.  Explore the resources below to see behind the construction fences and discover what’s in store for the Port Lands.

Behind the Fences – Live Virtual Tour!

Saturday, May 28, 11am: Explore the future river valley, see how we’ve started to build up the banks of the river, and check out soon-to-be-familiar landmarks like the new bridges and Fire Hall 30. The tour will use live footage from our on-site cameras, giving you a real-time peek behind the fences.

Watch the recording:

See the Future

Interested to see what the end result of all this construction will be? Explore these pages to learn more:

Interactive Map

Explore this map by clicking on the icons. Icons with an eye will show you a before photo and a rendering of the end result.

VR Experience

Click here to explore the future river in a kayak! Click and drag the image to look around you, and click on the white dots to learn more about points of interest.

Cool Construction

Digging

Learn how we dug a new river and worked with some of the challenges of a post-industrial site.

Bridges

The new bridges in the Port Lands caused quite a splash when they travelled along the St. Lawrence Seaway to Toronto! Watch this video to learn more about the different techniques we used to install each one.

Got questions about how we’re building the new river? Tweet them at Rocky @theRockRipper – he loves to hear from you!

Unearthing the past

Our team got a great surprise when plants sprouted from a historical seedbank that had been buried for over 100 years! Learn more in this blog post.

The Port Lands were created in the early 1900s when Ashbridge’s Bay Marsh was filled with garbage and fill. Many of these objects resurfaced during the excavation. See some of what we found.