The station sites have been picked out, the boring machine contract signed, and now locals will soon have a glance at station schemes for the underground portion of the Eglinton light rail transit (LRT), which runs from Keele station to Laird station. 

Approximately 40 companies have already packed ideas into a sealed envelope and are waiting for Nov. 11, when the bid competition for designing the underground stations comes to a wrap. “The envelopes aren’t opened until after the competition is closed,” said TTC spokesperson Ryan Bissonnette, who added that a committee will assess each bid and a station design contract will be awarded a few weeks later. 

Currently, the TTC has picked out preliminary sites for each station, including the Chaplin entrance at 574 Eglinton Ave. W., the Avenue entrance at 1024 Avenue Rd., the Mount Pleasant entrance at 256 Eglinton Ave. E., and the Laird entrance at 250 Laird Dr. The sites reside on a mixture of private and public properties, some with buildings on them. All sites underwent an environmental assessment that was approved by the province last May.

According to Steve Munro, a transit advocate who grew up in the Mount Pleasant Road and Eglinton Avenue East area, the TTC held several community meetings to build consensus on where stations should be. He said his own local Mount Pleasant station changed locations. “That station was shifted so that entrance locations would not be as objectionable,” said Munro. Another station that changed was Laird, which was originally intended to be closer to Brentcliffe Road. Bissonnette said station construction will begin in 2013.

As for the underground tunnel, last August a $54 million contract was made between Metrolinx, the provincial agency managing construction of the LRT line, and manufacturer Lovat Inc. for four boring machines. The machines will be nearly 200 feet in length and will start tunnelling next spring.