ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[KevinL]

One of the intriguing side aspects of the whole project is its supply chain. That happens to be uniquely visible at a place being used as something of a marshalling yard - one of the old Schneiders parking lots. I got some good shots of it earlier today:

[Pheidippides]

Passing through uptown Waterloo last night there was a crew working under the lights at Caroline and Erb at 8:45PM.

Also, the tracks now extend south on Caroline almost to Freemont and the concrete extends to just south of William.

[Coke6pk]

Here's an unorthodox use of the right-of-way, but I guess it's not being used right now anyway...

It'll be interesting to see how the finished product looks.  If it's like that, I'm curious how they'll enforce it when the time comes.

Looks like a trench blocking them from using their driveways right now... so despite the No Parking signs, I assume they have been given permission during construction to use the tracks as a parking spot.

When the trains are running, and someone needs the spot for a few mins... 



When people told me "I was only parked for a minute" I'd always happily respond, takes less than a minute for the tow truck guy tho... here's where you can find your car...

Coke

[KevinL]

I believe Willis Way station is the only one where both the platform and the embedded track have had the concrete poured. (We have some stations beside open track with the concrete poured as well.) Here's a look at it from today...

[KevinL]

Meanwhile at KCI, the base of the new front steps is proceeding well. They have a BIG crane on site to help, as well.

[KingandWeber]

Great pictures Kevin!

And wow, I didn't realize how much they were digging up in front of KCI! I hope they give the school some funds to restore their front yard back to its former state. It seemed like the school had put a lot of effort into beautifying that area in the past couple years. In fact, I think I remember reading in the Record that they even won an award for their work. I'm sure Grandlinq/the Region has something figured out though.

[tomh009]

Meanwhile at KCI, the base of the new front steps is proceeding well. They have a BIG crane on site to help, as well.

I saw this today, too.  It's still hard for me to visualize what the finished project will look like.

[Markster]

The rail bed in front of Charles St Terminal and Victoria Park Station is being cleaned up and leveled.
I'm wondering if we might see rails here before winter hits.

[MidTowner]

The two-week forecast is now calling for four degrees on the 28th of December...amazingly, we could still see plenty of work getting done into January.

[Markster]

I'm sure that GRT is really looking forward to getting Charles St back!

Living at the corner of Queen and Courtland, I'm quite happy that they eventually figured out that sending 80% of their buses around a Queen/Courtland/Benton loop was ridiculous.

[GtwoK]

Most curbs were in from Stirling to Cameron today. Sidewalks also going in on Borden, so people are finally parking in their driveways now. Also, and I might be wrong about this, but think they added more asphalt to the crossing at Courtland, because it seems more spread out and less of a bump now.

[isUsername]

Meanwhile at KCI, the base of the new front steps is proceeding well. They have a BIG crane on site to help, as well.

I saw this today, too.  It's still hard for me to visualize what the finished project will look like.

Conceptual Renderings

However, they demolished the entrance under the stairs as well, going all the way up to the front facade, so it may look a fair bit different.

[GtwoK]

I saw this today, too.  It's still hard for me to visualize what the finished project will look like.

Conceptual Renderings

However, they demolished the entrance under the stairs as well, going all the way up to the front facade, so it may look a fair bit different.

I'm not sure why it would look any different, apart from being completely built from scratch rather than using an existing portion of stairs. It's certainly the shape the concrete forms are taking.

[GtwoK]

Was surprised to see today that almost all the sidewalks are completely in on Charles from Water to Ontario! They're really in quite the rush to get these businesses back up to speed, considering spots like King St that have been paved for months don't have sidewalks yet.

There were a heap of dates pushed back today. The crossings on Caroline were pushed back, as were all the intersection closures downtown. Bit of a shame. Surprising that Charles / Francis keeps getting pushed back. More than 3 weeks overdue now.

All curbs are officially in for the Southbound lanes on Charles from Benton to Borden! Woo! Curbs are still missing on the Northbound lanes from Pandora to Cameron, but those should be done this week. Glad to see this major stretch almost done.

Charles is also paved in both directions from Benton to Cedar. Completely driveable now. Crossing Eby has been closed — the plans show this as no longer being a through street, but the shape of the curbs say it is? Eby being closed may just be to install tracks soonish — the Ion ROW has been completely leveled and tampered to Benton.

The remainder of Borden was mostly paved today, and should be finished tomorrow. I would assume that as soon as the Borden / Charles intersection reopens, Ottawa / Charles will close.

[white_brian]

Not sure if this was posted, from The Record.

http://m.therecord.com/opinion-story/618...nnect-them