ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[bpoland]

According to the design plans, it's supposed to be a multi-use trail (continuing the Iron Horse Trail) on the west side of Caroline from Allen up to Erb, to connect to the Laurel trail.

[Pheidippides]

Lots of sod plantingand line painting along king and Caroline today.

As a pedestrian the Ottawa closure at mill is getting very frustrating. If you are trying to cross the middle of Kitchener east to west or west to east legally and obey all the construction signage, particularly challenging during work hours, you either have to go up to 1km north to Stirling or 2km south to block line, a distance of 3km between crossing points. When the sites are not being worked on you can at least cross at Ottawa, ardelt, or Hayward but it does not feel safe or right.

[tomh009]

Grading the road at Victoria and King this afternoon:

   

[KevinL]

Lots of sod plantingand line painting along king and Caroline today.

As a pedestrian the Ottawa closure at mill is getting very frustrating. If you are trying to cross the middle of Kitchener east to west or west to east legally and obey all the construction signage, particularly challenging during work hours, you either have to go up to 1km north to Stirling or 2km south to block line, a distance of 3km between crossing points. When the sites are not being worked on you can at least cross at Ottawa, ardelt, or Hayward but it does not feel safe or right.

Are the workers not able to accommodate a crossing if they see you? I would think they understand the need for pedestrian access, especialy on Ottawa given the character of the neighbourhood.

[Canard]

They should be able to - on the Facebook group, one of our members lives right there and she's always able to cross to get to her bus stop on the other side of the tracks.

[KevinL]

Just took a walk past Cameron - the crossover components (switches, frogs, etc) are now laid in place, but are not yet welded or precisely aligned.

Looks good, but light was too poor for a picture.

[tomh009]

For those not on Twitter, it looks like I've caused a ruckus again.

Say hello to Queen St's new ridiculous pedestrian bottleneck pic.twitter.com/2WdY9Vnwm8

— Mark Jackson-Brown (@Markster3000) September 18, 2016

CTV Kitchener's updated story says it's not permanent:
http://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/small-sidewa...-1.3080831

I'm really not quite sure how they can make it accessible.  They can change the radius to make it wider, but there is an elevation difference of about 20 cm between the Charles St sidewalk and the Queen St one.  Even with a wider radius and a wider sidewalk, that'll be a steep slope for a wheelchair.

Unless they reprofile the Charles St sidewalk, but that'll have to go a long way toward the Full Circle entrance.

[tomh009]

Retaining wall in place now on Charles near Ontario, including sidewalk and parking lot pavement repair.  I wonder whether they'll put a railing on there?

   

[Canard]

I can't imagine why they would - the pavement is flush with the far ends of each step on the other side.

[Markster]

It's a bit of a drop as you get closer to The Working Centre.
I imagine a railing will be installed.

[tomh009]

I can't imagine why they would - the pavement is flush with the far ends of each step on the other side.

Yes -- but there is a drop on the other side of the wall.  I don't know whether that dictates a railing.

[tomh009]

Early-morning photos from Charles St and nearby:

The crew was checking the alignment at the Cameron Heights crossover, getting ready for the welders:
   

This must be a TPSS, right?  Charles just W of Borden:
   

The missing bit of embedded track being poured in the early morning at Borden station (?) on Charles:
   

Rebar has been delivered to Ottawa in preparation for the embedded track build:
   

[Canard]

Loving the crossover, Tom! Neat to see the snap lines there too installed over too for alignment. Can't wait to check it out after work.

[Canard]

Some LRT construction relief on the way - The Record

Points:

• Construction is 73% Complete
  
• 92% of Underground Utility Work is Complete
  
• 24 km of Track is Complete
  

...plus lots of dates for all the intersections opening up shortly!

[Elmira Guy]

I get a 404 error on that link. Just FYI.