Stars

• The City is starting work on a project to replace the sewers and watermains along Sheppard Avenue East between Scunthorpe Road and Gateforth Drive (east and west of Markham Road). The City had originally planned to replace these waterworks in 2016, but advanced the schedule to co-ordinate the construction with the future work on the light rapid transit line.

Tea leaves

• The City is expropriating land near where Sheppard crosses the Canadian National Uxbridge Subdivision tracks. (GO Transit’s 71 Stouffville trains operate along these tracks.) Yesterday, the second in a series of City ads appeared in the Toronto Star announcing that the City intends to buy all or part of 4044, 4061, 4068 - 4070, 4072, 4080, 4091, 4124 - 4139, 4142, 4146 and 4156 - 4158 Sheppard Avenue East, 5 Agincourt Drive and 1 Reidmount Avenue. The City will use these lands to build a roadway into and out of Agincourt GO Station and, perhaps most important, a grade separation — a bridge — to carry the tracks over Sheppard. Building the bridge is key to successfully operating light rail transit along Sheppard.

Crystal ball

• In the National Post today, an article by Laura Blenkinsop discloses, in passing, that “The Transit City light rail plan will see eight new lines criss-cross the city, with ground breaking on the first, Sheppard East, this month.”

Let’s see if the stars, tea leaves and the crystal ball are telling us the truth…