Toronto Flood Management System, ON

Location

Toronto, ON, Canada

Installation

Permanent

Type

Flood mitigation

About this project

Bayview Avenue is a major arterial road crossing the City of Toronto from north to south, spanning along the Don River. Unstable banks, rising water levels and thunderstorm activity can cause areas such as Bayview Avenue to experience extreme floods.

The City of Toronto has decided to implement resilience measures such as the deployment of a traffic management system to rapidly mitigate the impacts of flooding along Bayview Avenue. The Lower Don Traffic Management System (LDTMS) is allowing the City to remotely detour vehicles along Bayview Avenue and adjacent streets, preventing them from accessing a flooded zone.

Solution

Toronto’s LDTMS consists of 21 highly visible crash tested gates and 41 Blank Out signs (LBO). The LBOs allow the City of Toronto to alert road users of flood events and road closures while redirecting them efficiently. Moreover, the automated gates can be deployed to close key access points remotely, preventing vehicles from entering flooded areas during heavy precipitation.

All ITS devices are controlled and monitored from Toronto’s Traffic Management Center’s ATMS solution. The ATMS connects to 7 Versilis Commanders located at each one of the 7 access points. Each Commander is configured according to its own site specific scenario of operation, taking into account the number and type of devices, their grouping and the predetermined sequence of events.