ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[GtwoK]

Curbs all in on Francis! While, for whatever reason, this segment of street won't be open for another 3 months, I think we can at least look forward to it being pedestrian-crossable soon.

[isUsername]

I wonder what started the altercation?

Alcohol combined with a sense of entitlement to walk wherever one wants and indignation towards anyone who would tell you otherwise, according to the rumours.

[Viewfromthe42]

The delay here might be similar in technical nature to the long time it's taking to complete Caroline and Allen?

[Canard]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Heh... This made me chuckle. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wrLRT?src=hash">#wrLRT</a> <a href="https://t.co/Sk3HDqF1iZ">pic.twitter.com/Sk3HDqF1iZ</a></p>&mdash; iain (@Canardiain) <a href="https://twitter.com/Canardiain/status/737743233866969088">May 31, 2016</a></blockquote>

[KevinL]

A couple quick updates - sorry, no pictures.

The Mill and Ottawa intersection is entirely closed, and will remain so for an estimated 10 weeks. This includes the slip road by the church, so buses are detouring on Pattandon and Borden.

Much of the length of Benton and Frederick between Charles and Duke has been lined curbside with the now-familiar orange fencing. Safe to say roadway works will begin soon with pedestrians kept clear.

[Markster]

Much of the length of Benton and Frederick between Charles and Duke has been lined curbside with the now-familiar orange fencing. Safe to say roadway works will begin soon with pedestrians kept clear.

I drove north through there at 9:40 today.
With the closure of Victoria, it was pretty slow going. Just a single lane, no turning lanes. They'll need to disallow some left turns so that some nominal amount of volume can simply get across downtown.

Note to self, use Ontario St next time.

[GtwoK]

Interesting. Ottawa and Mill wasn't supposed to close until the 10th!

[Canard]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Meow meow! Installing catpoles beside the OMSF. <a href="https://twitter.com/rideIONrt">@rideIONrt</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wrLRT?src=hash">#wrLRT</a> Cc: <a href="https://twitter.com/TramWorld">@TramWorld</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/WRConnected">@WRConnected</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wrawesome?src=hash">#wrawesome</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/kwawesome?src=hash">#kwawesome</a> <a href="https://t.co/UoYMxzm4Jp">pic.twitter.com/UoYMxzm4Jp</a></p>&mdash; iain (@Canardiain) <a href="https://twitter.com/Canardiain/status/738040342730006528">June 1, 2016</a></blockquote>

Phone died and didn't have my camera with me, but concrete is now poured around the embedded track at Caroline/Allen (on the straight bit - not quite to the curve yet).

[Canard]

Latest ion project update video is out! Lots of great footage in this one!

[JoeKW]

Filling holes on Francis

[KevinL]

The retaining wall at Courtland and Block Line has become MASSIVE, as witnessed by this pic from the official Instagram.

[rangersfan]

That looks absolutely massive.

[Viewfromthe42]

Someone's definitely going to pretend they're Nathan Drake and take an injury-filled tumble.

[GtwoK]

Took some photos on a walk yesterday! Glad the sunny weather lets me do this again.

Duke from Water to Victoria and Francis from Duke to the Kaufman Lofts entrance is ready to be paved! Would be very surprised if this didn't happen today (especially with the rapid way curbs installed), should definitely alleviate some traffic. Last night when I was walking by, there was a steam roller doing a coarse tamping, and a rammer doing more of a fine tamping behind him.




King is completely torn up now between Francis and Victoria. Work hadn't much started on Victoria yee, apart from a small hole. As a side note, I'm quite disappointed in the pedestrian access with the new Victoria closure. Want to get from Charles to Duke by foot? You have to walk from the tannery, to One Vic, all the way down to the Beer Store, all the way BACK UP to One Vic, and then along Victoria. It's ridiculous.



Dirt was also being compacted at Francis and Charles last night. Embedded track is completed up to the Tannery entrance. Charles hasn't been paved yet - and it might be today - but apparently this intersection actually opened last night! Charles should soon be a fully drivable street.

[GtwoK]

The work going on on the North side of the underpass is quite impressive. The ROW has been excavated down to grade all the way from the new overpass to Wellington. It's amazing imagining how low the road will be here in just a few months! The photos don't quite captivate how far down the excavation is.




One thing baffles me: how will the connection from Moore to King be made? The grade on Moore will need to be lowered significantly, as with a bit of Breithaupt I would assume, but how will it be handled in front of the Google building, I wonder? Rails running a long the sidewalk so you don't fall down to the road?



Track embedding is done almost completely in front of KCI, and in the Green / King intersection. The intersection is just missing the concrete buffer i the middle, and then it will be all set to open on time next week as planned. I'm surprised curbs are still missing on the Southbound side of King in front of KCI, considering the track embedding is going on. With the stair complete, I'd have expected reopening traffic on King to have been a priority.



I really like how the raised sidewalk on the West side is being handled alongside the Sun Life building on King. Looks quite good when paired with the architecture of the old portion of the Sun Life building.