Construction could fly if Toronto wins 2015 Pan Am Games
August 31, 2009
By
Canadian Consulting Engineer
Representatives of the Pan American Games toured sports venues in Toronto at the end of August, leaving politi...
Representatives of the Pan American Games toured sports venues in Toronto at the end of August, leaving politicians and the construction industry hoping that the city will be the chosen venue for the Pan Am games in 2015.
Toronto and other cities in the Greater Golden Horseshoe are hoping to be chosen against rival cities in South America – Lima, Peru and Bogota, Colombia.
If Toronto’s $2.4 billion bid succeeds, there are plans for $700 million in construction of new sports venues. These would include the proposed Canadian Sport Institute Ontario, a large complex of international level facilities for training and competition events for athletes that would be located at the University of Toronto’s Scarborough Campus. Another large new venue at the same location is a proposed $170-million new aquatic centre. It would have two Olympic-sized 52 metre pools and a 10-metre diving tank.
The $1-billion Athletes Village would be built on the West Don Lands, one of several industrial brownfield areas that are being reclaimed and redeveloped on Toronto’s downtown waterfront. The 80-acre site next to the Don River would house up to 8,500 athletes, to be converted afterwards to affordable housing and market units. A berm athat is being built around the West Don Lands to protect it and other areas of downtown toronto from flooding is almost 78% complete. AECOM is overseeing the engineering of the berm.
In Hamilton to the west, a new Pan American Stadium and Pan American Velodrome are also on the shopping list if the Toronto bid wins.
Though some groups were protesting the idea of taxpayer funds being spent on the Games rather than social programs, other commentators pointed out how much Vancouver had benefited from being host to the upcoming Olympics, with new transit lines, a new conference centre and many other venues constructed.
The Pan American Games Sports Organization (PASO) will meet in November in Mexico to make a decision. Former Ontario premier David Peterson is chair of the Toronto bid committee.
