The projected costs of two new stations on the extended Toronto-York Spadina subway line have increased a total of $72 million because of engineering complications from a high water table, rising construction costs and Toronto’s green standards for new buildings, wrote The Globe and Mail Sept. 22.
The Toronto Transit Commission said a plan to integrate the Sheppard West stop with GO Transit has also driven up the price tag of that station, which is expected to feature a green roof with swept curves and airplane-like wing flaps to evoke the aeronautical history of nearby Downsview Park.
The cost of Sheppard West has nearly doubled to $102 million from an original estimate of $59.2 million. York University station is expected to cost $115 million, up from $86 million.
The TTC said it has found $12 million in project savings to offset the hike and is negotiating with GO Transit to foot part of the bill for Sheppard. The commission promises value-engineering studies to find other savings but adds it will rely on budget contingencies if the project remains over budget.
The TTC will consider preferred concepts for the two stations at a meeting Thursday. The commission will also seek public input on the designs. “This is the first public viewing of these concepts,” said Andy Bertolo, chief project manager of the $2.6-billion six-station Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension.
GO passengers will be able to exit their platform and walk down the stairs into the TTC station within 10 seconds, he said. “Not even Union Station downtown is that integrated.”
The York University station features a swooping roof that links two entrance pavilions and a “lightwell” on the Harry W. Arthurs Common.
York grad is a boxer with her sights set on Olympics
Sandra Viselli (BA Hons. ’08) and Melinda Watpool are hoping to be in London in less than two years from now and they’re counting on their fists to get them there, wrote The Mississauga News Sept. 21.
The two, who are fighters out of Dewith’s Boxing Studio in Mississauga, have set their sights on the 2012 Summer Olympics after capturing weight-class championships last month in Kansas City, Missouri.
Now that women’s boxing has been added to the list of events for 2012 Summer Games by the International Olympic Committee, and with some more titles to call their own, Viselli and Watpool are determined to be among the athletes from Canada who make it to London.
Viselli is a relative newcomer to the sport with just under a year in the ring. But she won by a decision to claim the featherweight championship (125 pounds) at the ninth annual Ringside World Championships in Kansas City, which attracted more than 1,400 boxers from around the world. “I wanted to go to the Olympics before I won the title,” says the 23-year-old Viselli, clutching her championship belt. “Now this championship is the inspiration to get there.”
She has come a long way considering she never competed athletically while in high school. “I played some ball and I swam but that’s about it,” continues Viselli. “Now I swim and run, I hit the gym for a few hours, I spar and I skip rope.”
First women’s studies grad changed our language
Susan Kathleen (Bourns) Milne (MA ’94) led a full life, wrote The Owen Sound Sun Times Sept. 22 in a death notice. Susan was in the first class to graduate from the Graduate Program in Women’s Studies at York University and, as a result of her thesis, encouraged York and several other universities to offer gender-neutral degree nomenclature.
She spent more than 10 years of her working life at the Women’s Centre in Owen Sound as both a manager and executive director. Susan and her husband spent several years living and working in northern BC in remote First Nations communities – her second home. Everywhere she went she touched the lives of all she met.
Osgoode grad practised in Alliston
Jack Bowerman’s name was synonymous with the word "lawyer" in the growing little town of Alliston for many years, wrote the Alliston Herald Sept. 21.
The Great Depression came along in the “hungry ’30s” and it was not easy to find the money to attend law school but somehow with the help of a good mom and his devoted sweetheart, Gladys Lyons, J.D. Bowerman graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1934 during the heart of the Depression. He even married the love of his life and set up a law office in the old hometown, above Byerlay’s Drug Store.
On air
- Marc Wilchesky, executive director, Counselling & Disability Services at York, spoke about student stress on Global TV Sept. 21.