David Kusturin stands at the top of a scaffold five metres above the ground just south of Commissioners Street in Toronto’s Port Lands and surveys the busy construction scene before him.

Crews operate massive cranes, augers and concrete pump trucks in a grey landscape vaguely resembling the lunar surface.

Kusturin points to a row of steel beams rising vertically from concrete cylinders buried deep in the ground and explains they will one day form the walls of a 200-metre-wide river valley that will transform this area from a polluted industrial wasteland into an idyllic natural setting.

“We’ll dig a new, kilometre-long river valley and naturalized mouth for the Don River — this creates a new island ringed with parks, where we’ll build the underground utilities, trails, roads and bridges needed to support a future neighbourhood,” said Kusturin, chief project officer for Waterfront Toronto, the agency overseeing the $1.25 billion Port Lands Flood Protection Project, one of the largest non-transit infrastructure projects currently underway in North America.

The new island, named Villiers Island, will feature parklands, walking and biking trails, and residential and commercial real estate (not to mention great views of the city skyline). It will also feature the only natural shoreline within the inner harbour, allowing for easy entry into Lake Ontario with canoes and kayaks.

“The fundamental challenge is to achieve three big goals: flood control, naturalization and placemaking,” said Kusturin, who is responsible for making sure projects undertaken by Waterfront Toronto are properly staffed, procured, and completed on time and on budget.

The Port Lands, located south of Lake Shore Boulevard between Leslie Street in the east and Cherry Street in the west, are a primarily industrial and commercial neighbourhood built on landfill that was once home to oil tank farms, factories and a city incinerator.

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