Toronto city councillors have voted in favour of moving forward with plans to rehabilitate the Gardiner Expressway.

They’ve approved a staff plan estimated to reduce the ballooning costs of the work by more than $1-billion.

Before the vote, Mayor John Tory made the case for rehabilitation while holding up a chunk of the Gardiner from east of Jarvis Street.

“It was chipped off because somebody identified a place in the Gardiner where the thing was falling apart as it is in most places. And I think that is symptomatic of the old way just like Scarborough transit. You leave it, you debate it, you re-decide it over again to the point where the RT that’s out there is completely falling apart. You’ve done no work to actually move ahead t decide what you’re going to do about Scarborough transit and somehow that’s okay,” Tory said angrily.

Staff earlier reported that a $1-billion jump in price stemmed from refinements to the design of the hybrid rebuild in the east.

The more conventional approach would see the city prioritize rehabilitating the section between Jarvis and Cherry Streets between 2018 and 2021, while continuing to plan the Gardiner East rebuild.

All rehabilitation is expected to be completed by 2025 and will affect traffic for the seven years of construction.