To quote former Mayor Mel Lastman, “It’s ugly as hell.”

And very expensive to maintain.

For decades since it came into our lives, visionaries have been angling to tear it down, bury it, do anything to rid us of the monstrosity.

But it has as many friends as foes, powerful backers who have so spooked the populace that any attempt to remove it is met with howls of protest.

Today, the Gardiner Expressway is falling apart, yet the future of the elevated highway through the downtown core — along the precious but despoiled waterfront — is as secure as ever. Toronto may have missed the best chance to tear it down and replace it with a “Great Street” in the central downtown, something urbanists have studied and advocated for decades without finding traction.

According to documents obtained under a Toronto Star freedom of information request, the expressway is crumbling before our eyes; and city inspectors are missing some of cracks and fissures, learning of them only after clumps of the roadway fall apart and land on motorists.

It’s a dangerous situation. Routine maintenance doesn’t seem to stem the cracks and decay. And, just as predicted, keeping the highway in a state of good repair may end up costing us as much as replacing it with a network of roads that better serve the metropolis.

Alas, it may be too late to do the right thing — bury the Gardiner, or, at least, tear it down and replace one of the waterfront’s great diminishers.

Some 12 years ago, Lastman said this:

“I was down there the other day and it looked like a piece of crap and it costs a fortune to maintain.”

Instead of throwing good money after a bad, crumbling roadway, Lastman was told, spend more and fix the mistake by the lake. He seemed to agree. But when political allies balked, he folded and let well enough alone.

Back then at the turn of the millennium, architects and planners argued that sooner or later the Gardiner will come down. The best window of opportunity is now, they said then, when it is not hemmed in on all sides by buildings; when you can put in the alternate travel routes right beside it, even as it is dismantled; when you don’t have to engage an engineering marvel to replace it.

David Miller replaced Lastman and also flirted with the Gardiner takedown before deciding it wasn’t worth it to spend the political capital it would take to mastermind the task. So, like the condos springing up around the Gardiner, Miller turned his back on the expressway.

Urbanists and visionaries intent on a downtown renaissance would point to similar projects around the world and salivate over a local initiative. But they couldn’t ward off the twin bugaboo — costs and traffic.

Opponents, in effect, said, no alternative could possibly handle the traffic the Gardiner carries daily. When commuters heard that, they wanted no part of the takedown. Secondly, the naysayers said the project was too complicated and too costly.

“Retain and ameliorate,” became the watchwords.

But, as predicted, the highway continues to be a maintenance nightmare. You can dress up an ugly date, put on perfume or cologne, but when the fragrance dissipates, you still have an ugly date.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Great men and politicians have contemplated removing the Gardiner, only to walk away. David Crombie, Bob Fung, Lastman, Miller. Plans for waterfront revitalization gave us the perfect excuse. We blinked. Now, the condos tower above it, the concrete chunks fall below it, and we are left to ponder Toronto’s lost opportunity.

It could be a generation before anyone revisits the dream.

Royson James usually appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Email: rjames@thestar.ca

Read more about: