ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Square]

Talked to some GrandLinq folks this morning on site. Here's the scoop:

-12 boxes currently installed for SB track
-18 more next weekend for NB track
-Bridge comes out next Friday
-CN is giving them a 130+ hr window that they HAVE to hit, so next weekend is a big weekend
-tracks reinstalled by Wednesday
-In about a month, track installation will continue  from the OMSF, heading south
-A good chunk of final spur line track will be done this year

Thank you.  Did you ask them if they will have a new bridge here like the one on Hayward or just the culvert?

[Canard]

There is no bridge. It's going to be a 3-orifice culvert, each "tube" made of 10 rectangular segments.  12 current installed, 18 more next weekend after the existing bridge comes out on Friday. When it's done, it'll look something like this:



Here's one under construction; note the boxes which are lashed together with long post-tensioned bolts, then an interface is poured on either side:

[Waterlooer]

Thanks Canard! This all makes a lot more sense to me now.

[Canard]

A few guys were digging around today at Waterloo Park with the backhoes. I've seen at least 3 petro canada trucks show up in as many days (every time I've gone to the park recently I've seen a fuel truck arrive), to refuel the pumps for the bypass. Thirsty engines, those.

[timio]

Anyone been by yet to see if the dams and pumps were able to survive today's deluge?

[ijmorlan]

Anyone been by yet to see if the dams and pumps were able to survive today's deluge?

I was there on my way home.

Not even close, to my admittedly non-expert view. The idea that the volume of water surging across the temporary road could be forced through the few little pipes they were using seems absurd.

However, this may not be a problem — as far as I can see, the culvert segments that have been installed are fine, so presumably they’ll just repeat the drying-out process again.

I’d be interested to know if this is deliberate — provide pumping capacity up to a certain amount, which is known to be less than what will occur after heavy rain, and take a calculated chance of having to repeat the draining process — or is it more of an amateur-style “keep working on the problem until it’s done” type of thing.

[ijmorlan]

They are getting the crossing built, so pumping the water during good weather must be somewhat useful. I don't know if there is any other relatively inexpensive and practical way to dry the site, while they complete the work.

Yes, during normal flow the pumping system works fine. It’s just severely overwhelmed by heavy rainfall. Of course, it would be possible to design a pumping system for any flow level, but it would have to be significantly higher capacity than the one they are actually using. But as we’ve already observed, they can dry it back out again and keep working so I suspect they’ve made a decision to use only enough pumping capacity for normal flow. Like most engineering decisions, there are tradeoffs: pay extra when it rains to re-drain the river, or pay extra up front for more capacity.

[timio]

They are getting the crossing built, so pumping the water during good weather must be somewhat useful. I don't know if there is any other relatively inexpensive and practical way to dry the site, while they complete the work.

Roman Aqueduct from University to Silver lake?

[Viewfromthe42]

My guess would be that if GrandLinq wanted to pump enough to prevent rain flooding, they would be paying out of their pocket, but the delays to the schedule and the cost of the extra work due to flooding could be perhaps charged against the Region. I'm sure that if the Region wanted to, they could have decided to pay for extra capacity, but all in all I doubt this was sensitive enough work to warrant the considerably larger pumping capacity and costs.

[timio]

I walked by this morning and it looks like less of an issue than it was last week. They haven't started digging the foundations for the culvert yet and there looks to be less water through the breach than there was last week, albeit they have added an extra pump on the south side of the creek since last week's rain.

As of 8 this morning, there were 8 culvert sections on site for this weekend's push.

[Markster]

Conditions this morning:
   
   

Water was still overflowing the upper dam, and the lower dam was again washed out

They've got 16 units in the ground already, and there's the 8 left to go.

I'm sure they didn't expect that the only real rain this summer would come during their 2 week build, and in substantial downpours at that.  There are reasonable precautions, and they've clearly landed on the bad luck side of things.

[Waterlooer]

Does anyone know if pedestrians can still walk on King from Victoria to Wellington?

[panamaniac]

I saw someone walking on King in the opposite direction (i.e. toward Victoria) yesterday.

[tomh009]

Does anyone know if pedestrians can still walk on King from Victoria to Wellington?

I've done it a number of times over the past month.  Some creative routing is required between Victoria and the railway tracks (I have been walking next to the UW pharmacy building).

[ijmorlan]

Conditions this morning:



Water was still overflowing the upper dam, and the lower dam was again washed out

They've got 16 units in the ground already, and there's the 8 left to go.

I'm sure they didn't expect that the only real rain this summer would come during their 2 week build, and in substantial downpours at that.  There are reasonable precautions, and they've clearly landed on the bad luck side of things.

Are you sure you have the right numbers? I thought there were to be 3 tunnels of 10 segments each, and that 4 segments each for a total of 12 had been installed, leaving 18 remaining to be installed. Today I thought I saw at least 8 or 10 segments sitting near the road and I’m not aware that any were installed today.

In other news, Caroline has now had pavement removed right up to the pedestrian crosswalk at Erb, except for a little bit around the existing railway tracks.