ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Canard]

What was the landscaping between Wellington and Union? I biked that last night but didn't see anything different then from the past several weeks... did they just start today?

[Pheidippides]

Mostly just freshly dumped dirt along the edges of road and sidewalk to bring it level for the hydro-seed or sod. A few random single sidewalk panels had been poured today as well.

I was down as far as the north side of the grade separation at Moore this afternoon. That hole gets gets longer and wider and deeper and cluttered. There is no way wellington reopens by the end of September and the planned late-October opening for Moore seems unlikely too - but then again I am always amazed how quickly things can come together. Hoping I am wrong!

[C Plus]

Does anyone know the scheduled opening of the King Street underpass?

[GtwoK]

Mostly just freshly dumped dirt along the edges of road and sidewalk to bring it level for the hydro-seed or sod. A few random single sidewalk panels had been poured today as well.

I was down as far as the north side of the grade separation at Moore this afternoon. That hole gets gets longer and wider and deeper and cluttered. There is no way wellington reopens by the end of September and the planned late-October opening for Moore seems unlikely too - but then again I am always amazed how quickly things can come together. Hoping I am wrong!

That was updated today - not reopening till October 31st.

[Pheidippides]

Does anyone know the scheduled opening of the King Street underpass?

It has long been stated as the vague "late-2016", but the City of Kitchener site lists 08-Dec-2016.

[Canard]

Beautiful panorama of progress at King/Victoria:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">King and Victoria, seeing progress! DT Kitchener <a href="https://twitter.com/WRConnected">@WRConnected</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/rideIONrt">@rideIONrt</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wrLRT?src=hash">#wrLRT</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Grandlinq?src=hash">#Grandlinq</a> <a href="https://t.co/upFOg1C6yB">pic.twitter.com/upFOg1C6yB</a></p>&mdash; HAL8950 (@HAL8950) <a href="https://twitter.com/HAL8950/status/776927214243831808">September 16, 2016</a></blockquote>

With three major intersections opening up in the next few days, I'm starting to get a bit depressed. Construction is almost at an end, folks!

[urbd]

Beautiful panorama of progress at King/Victoria:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">King and Victoria, seeing progress! DT Kitchener <a href="https://twitter.com/WRConnected">@WRConnected</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/rideIONrt">@rideIONrt</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wrLRT?src=hash">#wrLRT</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Grandlinq?src=hash">#Grandlinq</a> <a href="https://t.co/upFOg1C6yB">pic.twitter.com/upFOg1C6yB</a></p>&mdash; HAL8950 (@HAL8950) <a href="https://twitter.com/HAL8950/status/776927214243831808">September 16, 2016</a></blockquote>

With three major intersections opening up in the next few days, I'm starting to get a bit depressed.  Construction is almost at an end, folks!

depressed? i'm getting more excited every single day... can't wait to finally enjoy the city with a completely new streetscape!!! (albeit without ION service for a while)

[Canard]

Yeah, I know, sorry... I'm one of those annoying people who is just loving this upheaval of the whole city.  Once construction finishes, things are going to be very dark and quiet for a while, until closer to the end of 2017.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Yikes! Stop bar is missing from straight-through right lane. Asking for trouble. <a href="https://twitter.com/rideIONrt">@rideIONrt</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/RegionWaterloo">@RegionWaterloo</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wrLRT?src=hash">#wrLRT</a> <a href="https://t.co/RaA0LjOjSO">pic.twitter.com/RaA0LjOjSO</a></p>&mdash; iain (@Canardiain) <a href="https://twitter.com/Canardiain/status/777158363213946880">September 17, 2016</a></blockquote>

Edit - After looking at the Functional Design Plans, I think what's happened is the Left Turn Lane is just painted way, way too far ahead:

   

[KevinL]

At least the road hasn't opened yet, there.

A bit further up Duke, this retaining wall has been finished. Nice to see it complement the existing buildings' brickwork.

[Canard]

It hadn't even occurred to me that that was new - a testiment either to my ignorance or that they did a really good job disguising it!

Was hoping Doors Open at Google would have afforded great views of the grade sep, but unfortunately the tours didn't go anywhere near the windows on that side.

[Lens]

Good to see the clergy house for St. Mary's is now unobscured.

Here it was before: https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.4517613,-...6656?hl=en

[GtwoK]

They could have at least transplanted those trees

[tomh009]

A bit further up Duke, this retaining wall has been finished. Nice to see it complement the existing buildings' brickwork.

Indeed ... it's a different style from the one on Charles, across from Full Circle.  It seems they actually picked an appropriate finish in each case.

[zanate]

Yeah, I know, sorry... I'm one of those annoying people who is just loving this upheaval of the whole city.  Once construction finishes, things are going to be very dark and quiet for a while, until closer to the end of 2017.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Yikes! Stop bar is missing from straight-through right lane. Asking for trouble. <a href="https://twitter.com/rideIONrt">@rideIONrt</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/RegionWaterloo">@RegionWaterloo</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wrLRT?src=hash">#wrLRT</a> <a href="https://t.co/RaA0LjOjSO">pic.twitter.com/RaA0LjOjSO</a></p>&mdash; iain (@Canardiain) <a href="https://twitter.com/Canardiain/status/777158363213946880">September 17, 2016</a></blockquote>

Edit - After looking at the Functional Design Plans, I think what's happened is the Left Turn Lane is just painted way, way too far ahead:

Well! That explains the curb cut on the right. That's a crosswalk, folks! They painted the turn lane right through the crosswalk. Sigh.

Edit:  I took a closer look at the picture and it's not a curb cut at all. In fact it looks like the crossing isn't there at all, but has been moved up closer to the intersection. Looks like a design change, but it doesn't solve the squeezed lane problem. Hard to figure out what here is actual intent and what is oversight.

[bpoland]

Yeah definitely looks like the plans we have access to are not up to date. The stop bar will have to be pretty far back, maybe they could put some crosshatch past it to emphasize that you can't stop close to the tracks?