It was a river to nowhere.
A water main beneath the roadway on the north side of the Harry W. Arthurs Common, adjacent to the York University Bookstore, ruptured during yesterday's early morning rush. The resulting flood damaged the roadway and resulted in a diversion of Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) and GO Transit buses and the GO Train station and Glendon-Keele shuttles.
Edward Fenner, a web communications and publications assistant with York International and a commuter to the Keele campus, captured the flood on film. Click on the photograph below to see a slideshow of his photographs taken during the early morning disruption.
As of 4:30pm yesterday, the TTC, GO Transit, GO Train station and Glendon-Keele shuttle buses resumed service to the common.
Unfortunately, the damaged roadway could not be fully repaired, so the new construction diversion road through the common was opened so that the buses could loop into and out of the area. A portion of York Boulevard on the south side of the common (north of the Accolade East Building) was converted to two-way, bus-only traffic as far as the diversion road, to allow the buses to enter the common and loop around.
Barriers were expected to come down early this morning so that bus service could resume its regular routing to the common.
Staff from Security Services, Energy & Utilities, Grounds, Maintenance, Transportation Services and the York University Development Corporation, as well as the TTC and GO Transit, collaborated throughout the day on arrangements to deal with the unexpected problem. The bursting of the 45-year-old water main was not related to subway construction – there was none going on anywhere near the incident site.