ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Canard]

No, the pump/reservoir box sits topside, alongside the tracks. The only two so far are just North of Union, and have just been sitting loose on top of the concrete for a couple of weeks. They're small units but they're definitely mounted "topside".

[BuildingScout]

Caroline Southbound at Erb is open now. It wasn't yet yesterday afternoon when we drove past.

[Canard]

1/4 - Sunday, October 2, 2016

Short update today, the weather is pretty rotten and I got soaked fairly quickly trying to bike around.  Guess it's time for some fenders...

   
Thanks to Kevin L for pointing out that the track lubricator has been fixed (finally!) at Charles/Ontario.  There was a major interference here with the flangeway.

   
Wrong-way speed signs on Charles!

   
New signage at Manulife; I assume this is because the contact wire dips a bit below standard height here, to pass under the building, so it's probably a requirement.

   
More wrong-way speed signs, at the curve from Victoria onto Charles.

   
Facing the right way, now - a ridiculously slow speed along Charles.  This really irritates me and I'm very disappointed in this. At 25 km/h, I'll be passing trains on my bike!

[Canard]

2/4 - Sunday, October 2, 2016

   
The curious "Bus Only" lane sign at Victoria/Francis.  I'm curious if they gave up on the idea to have buses stay on the road and use that "island platform", and are just going to have them share the rapidway for a short section. Except...

   
...it looks like the thought is continued over on the North side of Victoria!  So curious.

   
Loving the nod to the Innovation District, here!

   
An overview of the King/Victoria area.

   
Just happened to catch a VIA train at the right moment!

[Canard]

3/4 - Sunday, October 2, 2016

   
Logic prevails! The "No Left Turn" sign has been temporarily covered.

   
Looking down Charles.  If only we'd opted for PRIMOVE... (And buried utilities)

   
King/Frederick area.  I have to be honest, I haven't been following this area very closely and I'm kind of surprised to just still see dirt, here.  It's always just a big pile of mud and dirt.  Is anything actually happening, here?

   
Lots of crossover work still to do here at Cameron Heights.  Looks exactly the same as it did a week ago - still lots of major welds to finish off.

   

[Canard]

4/4 - Sunday, October 2, 2016

   
Crossover work continued...

   

   

   
Installation of the lubricator boxes at the end of Borden.

   
Track curve from Borden onto the Huron Spur; very little progress here since last week.

[ijmorlan]

Looking down Charles.  If only we'd opted for PRIMOVE...  (And buried utilities)

But mostly buried utilities though, I would think — if you imagine using the catenary poles to support the streetlights, and bury the power cables, then the only visible difference between PRIMOVE and catenary is the actual catenary wires and the arms supporting them from the poles that would need to be there anyway, so the actual impact of the catenary wires would be pretty small.

Related question: does anybody actually use PRIMOVE continuously along a line, or just in strategically chosen areas such as junctions or public squares?

[KevinL]

King/Frederick area.  I have to be honest, I haven't been following this area very closely and I'm kind of surprised to just still see dirt, here.  It's always just a big pile of mud and dirt.  Is anything actually happening, here?

Like many places we've seen over this project, a spot is dug up for a day or two for a particular bit of work, then re-filled. I assure you it's been busy.

[danbrotherston]

Those speed limits do seem excessively slow. I mean, curves always have low limits (although they're rarely explicit) but 25 km/h on a relatively straight segment, what gives?

@KevinL You're right, and this has always bugged me, how much money do we spend digging and refilling the same holes, why not just dig a whole and refill, keep it fenced off, and if dumbasses open the fence and fall in, do I care?

[KevinL]

I'm not so sure it's the SAME holes, as such. Good prctice on this project seems to be to avoid shifting of infrastructure and erosion of ballast by following this method; it make sure all the new pipes, conduits, supports, etc that they install don't budge.

[GtwoK]

Can anyone else just imagine this as being our own little Eaton's Centre? They really should tear that parking garage down, build a tower there, and rework the exterior of the building to be more accessible from all around.

This is a bit of an odd thing to point out, but... considering either side of Charles between Water / Francis has a parking lot on either side, is there a reason they didn't just terraform this block to be completely flat? They had to dig it all up anyway... why not just replace it with flat land rather than a bump? I realize that the heights are exaggerated in the photo, but still.

[isUsername]

I'm not entirely convinced those speed signs are installed backwards.

They go (arrow indicates facing direction) <-25, 25->, <-10. Why would they have two 25 signs only two/three poles apart, a 25 and 10 sign on adjacent poles, and a 10 sign immediately after a turn followed shortly by a 25 sign?

We haven't had any other indication of there being an intention to allow it, but perhaps they do want to allow for bidirectional movement, at least on an exceptional basis, and the signs are required to do so.

[danbrotherston]

I'm not so sure it's the SAME holes, as such. Good prctice on this project seems to be to avoid shifting of infrastructure and erosion of ballast by following this method; it make sure all the new pipes, conduits, supports, etc that they install don't budge.

Well, I won't pretend to be an expert on this.  There are perhaps good reasons for doing it this way.  But I can tell you that sometimes at least, it is the same hole.

[KevinL]

I was down along Fairview earlier this evening, and have some photos and observations.

At Wilson:

Not certain quite what they are working on, but the asphalt has been stripped back from the embedded track and the road is closed.



The site of the future TPSS, behind the Shoppers.




Context of the broader area.


This bit of equipment was left out, I was surprised at how odd it looked unattended.

[KevinL]

I made my way further along the corridor and got a sense of the local feel of things. It is interesting to see now; the residential side is almost perfectly shut out by the new fence, yet no new barriers are up on the Fairway side. There are some existing fences, like behind the Michaels plaza, but the gap there remains open.



Next door, behind Swiss Chalet/Harvey's, it's even more permeable - though there is a thick run of close-planted evergreens, there are several gaps.

But the topper comes behind Royal Bank and PartSource - where virtually no barriers exist at all! 



You can really see how local residents would have become accustomed to entering the commercial strip at one of many convenient points. Obviously this is a major change for them, and even a single crossing would be truly a boon to their accessibility.