ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[danbrotherston]

I'm not sure if it was a one-off because University was closed to east-west traffic, but I happened to be near Bridgeport and Albert between 5:00 and 6:00 on Thursday and traffic was backed up from Erb east of King Street.

Fun fact, University was completely open!  All lanes!  And it was also a rather epic traffic jam as I rode a bus through there at 5:20.

I notice that drivers are still pretty pensive making the Caroline-to-Erb turn.  It doesn't help that the north sidewalk of Erb is out of commission and fenced off, so pedestrians have to walk on the road.

Yes, any judgements about traffic will have to happen after construction equipment, cones, etc. are removed.  As those do (and rightfully so) slow traffic.

[Canard]

Was just across Northfield. There's a mad scramble to get things done! Interesting signage - speed limit is 45 heading toward Conestoga after the bridge, before Colby/Conestogo. After the intersection, it says "Reusme Safe Speed".

I wonder if other intersections along higher speed sections of dedicated rapidway (Charles) will have these restrictions, too.

[tomh009]

Cat pole construction at Charles/Ontario!  Not sure what the horizontal arms are actually called ...

   

   

[chutten]

I'm not sure if it was a one-off because University was closed to east-west traffic, but I happened to be near Bridgeport and Albert between 5:00 and 6:00 on Thursday and traffic was backed up from Erb east of King Street.

I go through Erb @ FDB Dr every morning. Since the Erb @ Caroline opening, there has been serious madness coming from Bridgeport.

The culprit seems to be that anyone who wants to go South on Caroline has to detour. Specifically, they need to take the new dedicated right-hand turn West, then along Erb to FDB. Then a left-turn with no advance to go South on FDB, curving to East. Finally there's a line of cars waiting to turn South on Caroline next to the Valu-Mart's loading docks.

Add in a healthy dose of lane closures in both directions, Eastbound cars blocking Erb @ FDB, and "gee wouldja lookit that"... and here we are.

Once the traffic can careen their way South down Caroline without obstruction I expect we'll see a completely new pattern.

[GtwoK]

I'm not sure if it was a one-off because University was closed to east-west traffic, but I happened to be near Bridgeport and Albert between 5:00 and 6:00 on Thursday and traffic was backed up from Erb east of King Street.

I go through Erb @ FDB Dr every morning. Since the Erb @ Caroline opening, there has been serious madness coming from Bridgeport.

The culprit seems to be that anyone who wants to go South on Caroline has to detour. Specifically, they need to take the new dedicated right-hand turn West, then along Erb to FDB. Then a left-turn with no advance to go South on FDB, curving to East. Finally there's a line of cars waiting to turn South on Caroline next to the Valu-Mart's loading docks.

Add in a healthy dose of lane closures in both directions, Eastbound cars blocking Erb @ FDB, and "gee wouldja lookit that"... and here we are.

Once the traffic can careen their way South down Caroline without obstruction I expect we'll see a completely new pattern.

I was up there today, walking around. There's signage for 2 directions coming off Caroline South, and I didn't see a single person obey either of them.

Multiple signs say "No Left Turns". The left turn lane has a bus-only symbol on it. Yet I saw many people weaving in and out of the traffic cones in order to make an illegal left. You'd think the traffic cones would tip them off, if not the gigantic signs, but I guess not.

The other sign said "No right turns on red". Everyone at the intersection when the light turned red drove straight past the "stop here on red" line and proceeded to turn right (when safe). When I drove through, I stopped at the red line on red, and had multiple people behind me honking at me.

Wonder how this will be enforced. Especially with trains coming down.

[Canard]

The other sign said "No right turns on red". Everyone at the intersection when the light turned red drove straight past the "stop here on red" line and proceeded to turn right (when safe). When I drove through, I stopped at the red line on red, and had multiple people behind me honking at me.

I feel you. I get so antsy when I'm stopped at an intersection with this condition because I can see the rage in the people's faces behind me in my rear-view mirror. I generally avoid them altogether because I just can't deal with it.

[timio]

You had the same behaviour at the 7/8 westbound Fischer Halman exit and the 8 southbound Fairway exit when they were first signed like that. It's much less of an issue now. Give it a year and people will adjust. Moreso when trains start zipping by.

[Canard]

I guess it's happening at all the intersections where the rules have changed from what it was before. People probably have their "preferred" routes that they're just used to taking (I certainly do), and suddenly now there are restrictions in place that are inhibiting their movement. You're probably exactly right that it'll just take a little while for the new patterns to emerge.

[GtwoK]

Some pictures! Drove to a few sites today to see what was what. Phone died, so no pics for some.

Ontario / Duke - Wetworks done, communication banks ongoing

Young / Duke - This intersection was supposed to reopen today, but it hadn't and looked the exact same as it had 3 weeks ago - still no tracks crossing it, which is the last thing to be done here. Not sure what's up.

Water / Duke - All that's been done here is fencing's been put up, not even a trench for tracks yet, despite being closed a week.

Moore / King - A retaining wall on the McDonald's property is half built, looks great! It's 3 blocks thick. Super holding power. Rough-ins are in for where the rest of the retaining wall will go around the McDonald's / Google property. I believe underground work is done here, but they were in the middle of doing some underground utilities under the new bridge, so it's almost in the rebuilding stage, I'd say.











BONUS - you may have seen my post over on the Facebook group, but here's a photosphere, if you want to feel like you're REALLY THERE, plus, this is much better quality than what facebook compresses to anyway.

Interesting indents in the Google foundation... wonder what they'll do with these.

[GtwoK]

Grand River Hospital - a few more center curb pieces were added around here either today or yesterday

Importantly: King from Union to William is FULLY OPEN! Including the Allen intersection. Drive up and down it as much as you want. At the moment, you can't turn onto William from King, though there are the little side streets (Kuntz lane, and another) that you can use to get on or off of William. The concrete pads onto these were just poured today, should be open by Monday.

Sidewalks alongside the Bauer lofts were also poured today, proving that those hydro poles in the middle of the sidewalks really WERE temporary.

Of note: this may have been in the FDPs, but there are no left turns from King (Northbound) onto Allen (Westbound). Might annoy some people.

Hey, have another photosphere!









Some nice trees have been planted along King here too. Great!



King / William - track is laid across the intersection

[GtwoK]

Caroline looking good with catpole arms. Some last remaining sidewalk panels were poured along Caroline today, as well as a new pedestrian island at the corner of Willis Way, which will be useful to get to the station. Speaking of which, has been all boarded up!





At Caroline / Erb, the last remaining curb was poured here today. There's a weld to be made, and then the embedded track can be poured, too!



King / Conestoga Mall - The forms are off the stations, and the ground around the area has been tamped for pouring the sidewalks. The missing piece of the median on King (left missing so as to allow left turns temporarily) has now been blocked off, and the ground in there tamped too!

King North - the majority of the track is now embedded here. There were 2 remaining sections right where it curves onto Northfield

Northfield - busy as ANYTHING today! Multiple small section of curb poured, multiple sections of sidewalk poured, work going on all along the strip. There's a HUGE patch of grass in between the on/off ramps on both ends, which is great. The road looks complete here, apart from all the pylons all over the place. The highway ramps were NOT open when I drove by an hour ago, but they definitely could have been if it wasn't for the pylons blocking it - the concrete parapet walls that have been blocking the ramps at highway level were gone, and replaced with traffic cones, so they'd be easy to remove. Should still be opening today, if not already. Huzzah!

[danbrotherston]

...
Sidewalks alongside the Bauer lofts were also poured today, proving that those hydro poles in the middle of the sidewalks really WERE temporary.
...

On the other hand the decorative light standards that take up 1/3 of the sidewalk and are located unnecessarily right on the sidewalk instead of in the utility space are in fact permanent.

[jamincan]

What they could do at the corner of Caroline to improve compliance is have a transit style light for the left turn and then instead of a regular green light, have a right turn green light instead. People trying to turn left would never receive a signal that would be interpreted as proceed.

Similarly, they could have a red right arrow, possible in addition to the regular red light.

[Canard]

Thank so for the update, GtwoK! The photospheres are really cool.

You mentioned you can drive King all the way to William, but it's closed at William; do they force a U-turn there, like they did on Charles at Borden for a while?

[Pheidippides]

It is interesting that a railing was needed along the sidewalk along the west side of King at Union in front of the Sunlife gates; I guess it was too high and steep with the revised grade. I think snow clearing along various stretches of the route is going to be interesting to say the least. May Clearpath can invent some snowplow bots to get in to theses narrow and odd spaces.

This is not a new sign, but an older one that did not get removed in front of the Allen Square building. There used to be a delivery/loading bay along King and now the sign implies that you can unload for 30min while parked on the tracks: