ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Waterlooer]

Columbia Street from Hagey to Phillip will be closed starting this Monday May 25 for approximately two weeks for ION track construction. Very exciting.

[Markster]

Hmm... I'd seen on the Waterloo Road Closures website that Columbia would be closed at the tracks from May 25th to early June...

But there's no mention of it on the page anymore! Perhaps the closure of Columbia itself is being rescheduled?

[timio]

Hmm... I'd seen on the Waterloo Road Closures website that Columbia would be closed at the tracks from May 25th to early June...

But there's no mention of it on the page anymore!  Perhaps the closure of Columbia itself is being rescheduled?

There's a sign up at Philip and Columbia warning of this closure.

[Viewfromthe42]

These are perhaps some of the more worrying closures, because of how poor awareness of them seems to be. University will be next, and all that vehicular traffic is going to cause quite a headache.

[zanate]

A few extra tidbits from the ION stop anchor wall consultations:

• The heated-shelter stops will be Conestoga Mall, Northfield Drive, Block Line Road, Grand River Hospital and Fairview Park mall (this was actually reported in the Record.) The remaining stops will have utilities roughed in for future heating.
  
• The heated shelters will not be completely enclosed. (They'll have an open doorway.) The heating will be radiant, and on-demand. A button will be present to activate it for 5 minutes or so.
  
• The full length (2 LRV length) stops will basically mirror/repeat the existing infrastructure, including a second "book-end" anchor wall. The renders of a fully laid out stop look pretty nice because of that book-end effect of the anchor walls on either end.
  
• Stop names will be announced tomorrow! (probably as part of the council agenda for next week).
  

Unrelated: I also spotted the Laurel Creek culvert, exposed by ION construction on Caroline Street:

[Canard]

Ohhhhh, is that where the water goes after the waterfall beside Clay and Glass/The Mill? Where does it go?

[mpd618]

Ohhhhh, is that where the water goes after the waterfall beside Clay and Glass/The Mill? Where does it go?

It keeps going east, under King Street (where the parkade is, I believe), and comes back to the surface just north of Waterloo City Hall.

[Elmira Guy]

Yeah. It's Laurel Creek is it not? It crosses under Erb St, runs along Laurel St, crosses under Bridgeport, and then runs behind the Sobey's plaza and crosses Weber St. They're currently doing work to improve the retaining wall along the creek by Weber and Lincoln.

[Smore]

I'm told the odd shaped inverted "V" columns in the first floor of the parkade across from Waterloo Town Square indicate the position of the Creek also...You'll know what I mean next time you look at them.

[timio]

GRT Detours are up for the Columbia Street closure:

7 D/E will loop around Ring Road and use University/Philip to get to/from Columbia
31 and 201 will use Philip/University/Westmount to bypass the closed stretch.

[Spokes]

Excited to find out stop names!

[MidTowner]

Excited to find out stop names!

Bated breath!

[Markster]

7 D/E will loop around Ring Road and use University/Philip to get to/from Columbia
31 and 201 will use Philip/University/Westmount to bypass the closed stretch.

The road network around the university is so astonishingly brittle.
The 7E detour is comical in its madness.

[timc]

Hmm... I'd seen on the Waterloo Road Closures website that Columbia would be closed at the tracks from May 25th to early June...

But there's no mention of it on the page anymore!  Perhaps the closure of Columbia itself is being rescheduled?

There's a sign up at Philip and Columbia warning of this closure.

I really dislike those signs. They say that the road will be closed May 25, with no indication of duration. Sadly, this is typical for road closures in Waterloo.

[zanate]

Stop names are in.



Discuss!