ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Canard]

...ready to open if the trains were equipped with PRIMOVE, perhaps.

[dunkalunk]

...ready to open if the trains were equipped with PRIMOVE, perhaps.

Cars don't need Primove, they run on gas.

[Canard]

...ready to open if the trains were equipped with PRIMOVE, perhaps.

Cars don't need Primove, they run on gas.

D'oh, I didn't realize Markster meant the road, not the tracks. Definitely it should open!

Interestingly enough, cars can run on PRIMOVE!



Riding St. Louis' LRT system today.  A large chunk of it was built on an existing railway ROW, just like ion, and the trains just fly!

[zanate]

Gotta say, the Duke work seems to be proceeding pretty quickly compared to other locations. No masses of utilities to move, I guess.

Wonder if this holds for the rest of Duke? Maybe that's why they left it until later.

[GtwoK]

The curb machine was at King / Wellington this morning. ready to curb the remaining section of King between there and Louisa.

[KevinL]

One thing that seems to have helped at Duke just west of Ontario is that the existing hydro vault is on the south side of the street - as the tracks are on the north side, that saved a cumbersome relocation.

There is a buried hydro vault right in the middle of Frederick between King and Duke, however - if that has to move, we may be seeing delays there.

[Canard]

Delays? Surely if there's a massive thing that has to move, it would have been known about, and built into the schedule?

[KevinL]

Sorry, not delays as such - it just may be a big part of the scheduled work.

I'm not sure if its location is a problem to begin with, though.

[MidTowner]

From the CBC this morning: Pedestrian safety near LRT construction sites galls residents

It's certainly true that foot access around the construction zones in the core has been pretty poor. There's likely no way around it, though. I've had attempts to get around frustrated by the fact that the access gives no consideration for anyone who might be using wheels. But I can't usually think of a way that the shifting construction zones could be made more accessible. If GrandLinq tried to provide only access that was completely accessible, it would probably mean restricting access a lot more than it is. A lot of the paths they provide will necessarily only be useful for the able-bodied and unencumbered.

[ElsieEm]

From the CBC this morning: Pedestrian safety near LRT construction sites galls residents

It's certainly true that foot access around the construction zones in the core has been pretty poor. There's likely no way around it, though. I've had attempts to get around frustrated by the fact that the access gives no consideration for anyone who might be using wheels. But I can't usually think of a way that the shifting construction zones could be made more accessible. If GrandLinq tried to provide only access that was completely accessible, it would probably mean restricting access a lot more than it is. A lot of the paths they provide will necessarily only be useful for the able-bodied and unencumbered.

That's really interesting. We live at Duke & Water, and the road crossings and pedestrian walkways around here are a hot mess, and have been for months. Like someone in that article said, it's a new adventure every day! That said, last night (so, Sunday) at around 8-9pm there were a couple of guys working to fix up the fences, raking the gravel paths to be smoother and free of bigger debris and rocks etc. My husband and I were a little bamboozled that they were working so late on a Sunday night tidying things up when they've never really bothered before, but now I suppose it was in response to this media scrutiny!

[KevinL]

Track has been laid out and secured to crossties between Queen and Benton, on Charles. The custom curved pieces are more roughly laid through the Queen intersection. Another stretch of straight track will be needed from Queen to Ontario - but once that is supplied, we have all the necessary track from Francis to Cedar along Charles!

[Section ThirtyOne]

From the CBC this morning: Pedestrian safety near LRT construction sites galls residents

It's certainly true that foot access around the construction zones in the core has been pretty poor. There's likely no way around it, though. I've had attempts to get around frustrated by the fact that the access gives no consideration for anyone who might be using wheels. But I can't usually think of a way that the shifting construction zones could be made more accessible. If GrandLinq tried to provide only access that was completely accessible, it would probably mean restricting access a lot more than it is. A lot of the paths they provide will necessarily only be useful for the able-bodied and unencumbered.

That's really interesting. We live at Duke & Water, and the road crossings and pedestrian walkways around here are a hot mess, and have been for months. Like someone in that article said, it's a new adventure every day! That said, last night (so, Sunday) at around 8-9pm there were a couple of guys working to fix up the fences, raking the gravel paths to be smoother and free of bigger debris and rocks etc. My husband and I were a little bamboozled that they were working so late on a Sunday night tidying things up when they've never really bothered before, but now I suppose it was in response to this media scrutiny!

When we lived at the Seagram Lofts during the initial phase of construction along Caroline, pedestrian crossings were quite poor and seemed more an afterthought than anything. After several residents complained, proper pathways were installed very quickly, which demonstrates to me that Grandlinq is open to constructive criticism.

[GtwoK]

constructive criticism.

[GtwoK]

Walked a very long distance today. I kept setting a short goal, then when I got there, I saw more construction goodies up ahead, had to keep going further!

A very large hole at Victoria / King. Seems water works have started here now! The scale isn't really captured in this photo - that concrete piping laying along the bottom of the pit is at least 6 feet tall!



Communications ducts for Ion are being laid along in front of the Kaufman lofts. They really are speeding along on this section. I'm wondering if they might even finish the Northbound track from Water to Victoria ahead of schedule - sure looks like it so far!



Not pictured - all traffic poles (and almost all trafiic signals) are in at all intersections along Charles, between Victoria and Benton now. My bet is that as soon as the track is laid near the Benton station, Charles will reopen. Only 2 weeks to go, if that's the case!

I'm wondering what they'll do with the sidewalk here at Charles / Benton. Hoping this tree doesn't need to come down, but it looks like it might.

[GtwoK]

Track ready to be laid across Cedar




Were these here before? Cat poles along much of Charles!



A finished Cameron / Charles



Hadn't been down to Borden in a long time. I was under the impression that track was all finished here, but it seems not! At any rate, the forms are in, so it should be done soon.



Retaining walls being put in for the Borden TPSS