ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Canard]

What do you mean "hop over"? You mean as like a pedestrian? Or as a driver? Because oh yeah, just you wait. Everywhere light rail is introduced, there's a good 2-3 years of once-a-month (or more! Houston) stupidity that occurs. It'll be all over the news. Cars getting whacked, turning left in front of trains, cyclists getting their wheels stuck in tracks, pedestrians getting hit because they're wearing headphones and not paying attention... Good times.

[nms]

If I recall, the Northfield/Highway 85 intersection will be restricted in terms of who can get on or off depending on your direction of travel.  For instance, this public information board from pre-August 2013 indicated the following planned restrictions:

• The removal of the northbound left (Highway 85 southbound to Northfield Drive westbound)
  
• The removal of the eastbound left (Northfield Drive eastbound to Highway 85 northbound)
  

Putting a jersey barrier up will prevent anyone who didn't read the signs leading to the exit or entrances from trying to make one of the above turns.

[GtwoK]

But why not just use the tall curbs, as they're using everywhere else the Ion ROW runs along the road and restricts access to vehicles?

[Canard]

They are.

[GtwoK]

I don't understand. There will be both tall curbs and Jersey barriers between cars and Ion trains?

[Canard]

I don't understand. There will be both tall curbs and Jersey barriers between cars and Ion trains?

I believe Jamincan is using the term "Jersey Barriers" to describe the temporary, segmented ~1m high concrete walls which can be placed in short order to provide some level of crash protection at a construction site (right?), not a permanent, poured, continuous metre-high barrier:


Temporary concrete barrier

I would imagine these are being installed to protect the workers from the higher-speed traffic on Northfield during construction. I haven't been across the bridge in weeks; I, like many others, avoid driving in that area now like the plague!

Here's a cross section of the track and ground profile on the bridge, taken from page 16 of this document.  Note the ~300 mm high curbing here, just like the rest of the alignment.  Only the bravest of SUV drivers will succeed in mounting these.

   

Edit - 150 mm high, actually!

[MidTowner]

It sounded like Jamaican was saying they were on the bridge itself- I was at the site around 2:45, and there were jersey barriers, but they were on the south side of the roadway, near where the platform will be. They have these temporary barriers in and around the site in changing configurations, from what I've seen over the past weeks.

[timc]

Try as I might, I can't avoid occasionally driving through the area, and I was just there today. The barriers I have seen on the bridge don't look temporary, but I didn't look that closely. They also don't look like full-height jersey barriers, but that might just be because the centre section of the bridge is lower than the roadway.

[jamincan]

I didn't want to slow down traffic by craning my head, so I didn't get a terribly good look, but it looked to me like they were permanent barriers. I may be mistaken though.

[Markster]

I took a look at the Conestoga Mall Station area while there was still a little light out today:

   
   
   
   

[tomh009]

Try as I might, I can't avoid occasionally driving through the area, and I was just there today. The barriers I have seen on the bridge don't look temporary, but I didn't look that closely. They also don't look like full-height jersey barriers, but that might just be because the centre section of the bridge is lower than the roadway.

The permanent "full-height jersey barrier" is actually the Ontario Tall Wall.  110 cm high rather than 32 in for the Jersey Barriers.

[jamincan]

I just drove by again, and it is definitely a permanent barrier. I don't think it's related to the intersections either as it seems to stop before them. I'm wondering if it's to prevent a derailed train from entering the driving lane?

[JCnb]

Those barriers are definitely permanent, they have expansion joints going through them at each ends of the bridge. They aren't as tall as the bridge parapet walls or a typical "Ontario tall wall". I am wondering if they are only located on the bridge itself as part of bridge code requirements? Could they be in place as part of structural reinforcing of the bridge deck for the load of trains?

**EDIT**

Looking at the cross section a little closer, it looks like the road surface on each side of the ROW will be higher than existing, meaning those "walls" won't be all that much higher than a curb. My assumption is that those barriers simply contain the ballast for the track and won't end up being all that high once completed. Keep in mind this is a bridge deck therefore they don't have anywhere to "bury" anything they normally would otherwise therefore everything appears to be higher compared to the existing bridge deck..... All assumptions of course!

[GtwoK]

I could see that. It might make sense for the trains to be in a bit of a "gutter" whole on the bridge, where the road surface is higher than the rail surface, before evening out at the end of the bridge. You wouldn't want a derailed train on the 85, of all places.

[Canard]

I had always assumed that it would be embedded track across the bridge. Are you sure it's to be ballasted track?