ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Waterlooer]

Future Willis Way Station Platform



Caroline Street towards Erb Street

[Canard]

Great shots, Waterlooer!

Detail concrete work at Charles/Benton.

   

[clasher]

I rode by the pour in progress on Borden but I didn't have a camera, they looked like they were just getting things set up since only one cement truck was there at the time.

[GtwoK]

I think the Borden pour was just for sidewalks. Drove by just now and there was no additional track embedding done, but the sidewalks were freshly poured.

Curbs are ready to be poured tomorrow along Charles from Borden to Stirling (WB)

There's only one section of embedded track left at Benton before they can pave it to reopen next week.

They've started digging up more of Charles in front of the parking garage.

Ontario's closure was extended by over a week, for some reason.

King St (SB, KCI to Wellington) was paved today! Looks great.

Track is now in along Caroline across FDB. Just needs to be embedded.

[Canard]

No, Borden definitely had a pour this morning for embedded track between Courtland and Nyberg.

I hate to be pessimistic, but I don't see how Benton/Charles is opening on Monday. Yeah, the concrete is almost done, but there is a ton of earth that has to be brought in to fill up the surface height plus all the paving... I'll go see where they're at tomorrow.

[KevinL]

Well, if they work through the weekend...

[GtwoK]

Hmm. Interesting, The orange tarp looked like it was covering the same area as it was before. My eyes deceived me.

I don't think any more dirt needs to be brought in for Benton. When I saw it tonight, it was really well leveled out, perfect coat of top soil... looked just like other sections of road did right before paving. In fact, if it wasn't for the missing concrete section (they skipped one and did the ones on the opposite side, for some reason?), I'd say they would pour asphalt tomorrow. The base asphalt + top asphalt would be just enough to bring it up to the level of the manholes and what I assume are gas pipes.

That being said... they would definitely still need to work through the weekend. I also don't think it'll be opening Monday. I can't think of a single closure that wasn't delayed so far, surely this won't be any different! 

[Canard]

Re: Charles and Benton - the running surface of the rails is about 30-50 cm higher than the flat packed earth that makes up the majority of the intersection. So I really don't see how they won't have to bring in lots of earth to build this up... Unless I'm missing something. Maybe the whole intersection will be poured concrete? That's how lots of other cities do it...

[GtwoK]

I've come to the conclusion that I must really not know what I'm talking about when it comes to the engineering involved in this, haha. The grade being high enough for asphalt was an assumption by me; it looked like maybe 20cm between the dirt and the top of the rails. I had assumed that was about the thickness of 2 coats of asphalt!

[Canard]

Have a look at tomh009's photo a few pages ago, and you'll see what I mean.  The top surface of the concrete and the rails are waaaaaaay higher than all of the dirt in the area.  Asphalt is thicker than you think, but it's not that thick!  Although, now that I look at it again, maybe it's like this:

   

So if that's the case then yeah, maybe it's not really that bad.

[GtwoK]

Northfield at the tracks will close next Friday where it'll be worked on around the clock for 5 days straight! Supposedly final track installation will be done during this period.

[Canard]

Very cool and exciting. This will be where the track curves from Northfield onto the Spur, which makes this a bit more complicated than other intersection closures we've seen along the spur so far. Thanks for the heads-up!

I wanted to stop by Benton/Charles tonight, but they said on the radio that a water main broke on Queen at King which had flooded the whole area. Since Queen is the only cross-street in the area to get across the construction, I avoided the area.

[timio]

Tracks are across Fr. David Bauer along Caroline, no concrete yet.  Rebar is placed across the Alexandria intersection.  There are also tarps overtop of what one can assume is the recently poured concrete of Willis Way station.

[tomh009]

Only a minor flood, no dramatic impact. Yet another dig completed at Charles & Ontario, we'll see whether that was the last one.

[GtwoK]

Benton just now. Final section completed. Seems they did it last because of something being embedded in the concrete around the tracks, no idea what it is though.



Doesn't look like anywhere else from Union to Courtland was worked on today, from my driving around.

Canard, you were right, I definitely misjudged the height of the concrete.