The collapse of a commuter highway near Montreal Saturday left five people dead, and thousands more wondering about the safety of the roads in their cities.
Toronto's no exception, and crumbling concrete and cracks in one of the city's busiest highways are raising local eyebrows. The Gardiner Expressway has been the source of safety speculation for some time, and while many have called for its destruction, the city is trying desperately to keep it up.

Using a concrete patching system, several areas of the highway, including one a Jarvis and Lakeshore (pictured), are being treated for growing cracks.

"It can be any size of concrete falling off," said engineer Jose R. Gutierrez.

"It can be a little piece it can be a big rock ... but if it falls from that height it can actually kill a person."

Gutierrez has been studying the Gardiner for years and said it would be says for large slabs of concrete to fall from above in a fashion similar to what took place in the hour before the Laval overpass collapsed.

Currently the inside of the Gardiner's concrete are steel beams and mesh. When the steel rusts, it expands, and that's what causes concrete to fall off. Routine maintenance can stop the cracks from growing, but the city has bigger problems.

Never mind elevated roads like the Gardiner Expressway and Highway 401, sinkholes like the one remaining from a pipe collapse on Finch Avenue in 2005 could become more and more frequent, since some of the city's pipes are more than 100 years old.

"If you don't repair a little leak, it turns into a big leak and it costs you five times as much," said councillor Adam Giambrone.

"It's the same thing when you're talking about a road or a water infrastructure."

Of course fixing all these problems won't come cheap. Over the next 10 years the city will be forced to spend several billions dollars in basic maintenance alone.

Here's how your can report problems on the highways and vote for the province's worst roads:

If you want to report potholes or other maintenance problems on provincial highways, contact your ministry district office.

You can also call MTO Info at 416.235.4686 or toll-free at 1.800.268.4686.

To report problems on Toronto roads, particularly potholes, call the city at 416.599.9090.


The Municipal Roads Coalition has launched its fourth annual Worst Roads campaign. To find out more and to vote for Ontario's worst road, click here.