ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[GtwoK]

Borden / Charles. I definitely thought both tracks were in here, but I guess not. Should be soon!



Really love how this curve looks



Sod going in along Borden. Apart from wires on the cat poles, this is a great glimpse of what the system will look like once it's all done and finished.



Ottawa Charles looks pretty close to getting curbs and pavement back. We're still probably a fair bit away on this one, considering how long the curved track seems to take.



Retaining walls along Ottawa. In the distance, you can see cat pole bases in (the black cylinders)

[GtwoK]

You can see the grade beginning to incline here at Waterloo / the rail tracks. I'm trying to figure out what they're doing here - closer to Duke, the 2 existing rail track split off into a third, which is heading up this new incline. The incline is also being laid in dirt, and on top of the pavement parking lot there, without having dug the pavement up first. I'm not sure why they wouldn't have demolished the parking lot first and foremost. 2nd, I'm not sure how the tracks will be arranged coming from Weber now. Seems like they'll take an S-Bend away from the Boehmer building and head up the new incline? It's all quite confusing.



Did a quick run out to the new bridge. Seems a retaining wall has gone up along side the School of Pharmacy. I wonder if that concrete one will come down - seems a little unnecessary now!



Curbs are now in at Louisa / King, extending almost down to (but stopping short of) Wellington. I'm not sure if they'll finish the curbs before repaving and opening King.



And as the final surprise of the day... CURBS have finally gone it in front of KCI! It's about time! We can look forward to King being open two-way sometime next week, I'd wager!

[Markster]

Did a quick run out to the new bridge. Seems a retaining wall has gone up along side the School of Pharmacy. I wonder if that concrete one will come down - seems a little unnecessary now!

Ugh. That new retaining wall seems to say there is no provision at all for maintaining the pre-existing pedestrian connection that used to go through there. Maybe they'll fix it when they build the Transit Hub.

[panamaniac]

I like the look of Borden Ave with proper sidewalks in place, but I wonder about the decision to put grass in the boulevards - who will maintain?

[MidTowner]

The property owners should, as with boulevards on any other street. I agree that they’re less likely to here than in more residential areas. I think concrete or, even better, a planting strip maintained by the City, would be a better idea.

[panamaniac]

I think that, at least for the narrow strip on the "west" side of the street, I would have gone for pavers.

[Canard]

I personally adore the look of the grass - brings some much needed greenery to an otherwise ugly street. It looks so much better now! I wish I'd taken some "before" photos of the wasteland that was Borden pre-ion.

[BuildingScout]

I personally adore the look of the grass - brings some much needed greenery to an otherwise ugly street. It looks so much better now! I wish I'd taken some "before" photos of the wasteland that was Borden pre-ion.

You can use google maps timeline to retrieve a picture you from before Ion, can you not?

[MidTowner]

I personally adore the look of the grass - brings some much needed greenery to an otherwise ugly street. It looks so much better now! I wish I'd taken some "before" photos of the wasteland that was Borden pre-ion.

Give it some time. That grass won't be green (actually, it won't even be grass) before too long. Unless the municipality takes it upon itself to maintain it, which is possible.

[panamaniac]

I personally adore the look of the grass - brings some much needed greenery to an otherwise ugly street. It looks so much better now! I wish I'd taken some "before" photos of the wasteland that was Borden pre-ion.

Most of Borden between Charles and Courtland looked more like an industrial back alley than a city street, prior to this construction.

[Canard]

Exactly - that's what I'm getting at! This is a huge, huge improvement.

Sorry, I'm hopelessly optimistic, and believe that the grass will look good over time - much better than just filed in with concrete.

[rangersfan]

Has anyone seen any recent figures showing the current percentage of track installed?

[Pheidippides]

The big mammoet crane just lifted the Waterloo park TPSS in to place. Will post picture later.

[nms]

I noticed that the Seagram signal crossing poles differ on the number of tracks that you are crossing. When you are heading west, the left hand (north) signal indicates 3 tracks while the right hand (south) signal indicates 2 tracks. I could see arguments for either case. Realistically there are only 2 paths/tracks at the crossing, but thanks to the gauntlet track there are 3 pairs of rails. There must be an arcane piece of Transport Canada regulations being interpreted here.

[Canard]

That's hilarious - we actually talked about this during the Brampton group's visit/tour a month or so ago, and jokingly said it should say "2 1/2" or something. I've only seen the "2"; the fact that it's different depending on what way you're approaching is hilarious! Great find!