The colossal task of rerouting a river is somehow going surprisingly well in a Toronto known for its infrastructure-building woes.

Waterfront Toronto's ambitious $1.25 billion Port Lands Flood Protection Project (PLFP) is creating a new human-made mouth for the Don River, bypassing the silt-clogged Keating Channel and creating a new island in the process.

The PLFP will unlock 240 hectares of the vast Port Lands area for future development by eliminating a floodplain through the creation of a serpentine one-kilometre-long channel where the Don River will empty into Lake Ontario.

The waterfront regeneration agency has just released an update on the project for November 2023, showing impressive progress on the new river valley, parks, fish habitats and other aspects of the project that have advanced significantly in the last year.

Highlights of the project shown off in the video include the 'plugs,' or dams holding back the water of Toronto Harbour and the Don River/Keating Channel as crews ready the currently-dry river valley.

Small coves, including the aforementioned fish habitats, line the river mouth and the new landform known under the working title of Promontory Park. The fish coves are already taking on new life, and even an endangered American Eel was spotted taking refuge in these new naturalized features in recent months.

Promontory Park promises to be a new destination for skyline viewing, relieving pressure on the small and often-overcrowded Jennifer Kateryna Koval's'kyj Park at the edge of Polson Pier to the south.

One of the most immediate changes coming to the Port Lands is the rerouting of Cherry Street along a right of way being built to the west of the current street, carried over the Keating Channel and the new river mouth via a pair of recently installed bridges.

This rerouting will allow demolition to proceed on the problematic Cherry Street Life Bridge crossing the Keating Channel, which has suffered reliability issues and even a prolonged closure as it nears the end of its service life.

The river is the most visible element of the PLFP, though the project also includes an impressive 2.2 km of new roads, a series of futuristic bridges, and less visible components like 3,300 meters of tunnels and 1,200 metres of duct banks hidden underground.