Toronto Mayor David Miller and TTC Chair Adam Giambrone visited the Lovat Inc factory. Looking at model of Tunnel boring machine.

September 2010

Toronto Mayor David Miller and TTC Chair Adam Giambrone visited the Lovat Inc. factory on July 30 to announce details of the Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) that will dig the twin tunnels for Transit City’s Eglinton Crosstown LRT.

The twin tunnels will carry Transit City LRVs eastbound and westbound under the central portion of Eglinton Avenue between Keele and Laird.
 
They will be launched from two sites. The first two machines will launch at the western end of the tunnel in the Black Creek and Eglinton area in the summer of 2012. Tunnelling from the east (in the vicinity of Brentcliffe Road) will follow nine-to-13 months later. The TBMs will be removed from the ground at the future Chaplin Road Station.

On June 2, Commissioners authorized TTC staff to award a contract worth nearly $54 million to Lovat Inc. of Etobicoke for four TBMs and ancillary equipment.

The Eglinton Crosstown LRT is scheduled for revenue service in 2020 along a route that will combine surface and underground service from Jane Street in the west to Kennedy Station in the east.