Toronto island airport tunnel nixed

A proposed tunnel to the Toronto Island Airport will not bebuilt because it cannot be completed fast enough to qualify for federal stimulus infrastructure funds.

"Although the tunnel concept was warmly received by a majority of Torontonians, it must be concluded that there is now insufficient time for the TPA [Toronto Port Authority] to be assured that it will be able to meet the federal government's deadline for 'substantial completion' by March 2011," said Alan Paul, acting president and chief executive officer of the Toronto Port Authority in a statement.

Theport authority first floated the ideaof an underwater pedestrian tunnelconnecting the mainlandwaterfrontto the airport in June. Passengers of Porter Airlines, the airport's main tenant, currently have to take a 90-second ferry ride to reach the island.

The tunnel would have been eight metres wide andfour metres high and outfitted with moving sidewalks for Porter passengers.

The port authority began working in earnest on the plan in late August, when it issued a formal requestfor proposals to conduct an environmental assessment.

The tunnel would have cost an estimated $38 million to build. Both Premier Dalton McGuinty and federal Transport Minister John Baird had said the proposal was worthy of funding consideration.

But Toronto Mayor David Miller and a island community groups were critical of the plan, saying it would increase air traffic in the area.