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(05-16-2017, 06:21 AM)Canard Wrote: I have a feeling those dated signs suggest that they're going to "upgrade" the rail line...
...ie, the Waterloo Park treatment. Huge trenches, fences, and bye-bye trees.
I’d be a bit surprised. That’s a lot of money to spend on that low traffic level. In the LRT section my sense is the upgrades are for the LRT — it would look exactly the same if the freight had been abandoned years ago and it was completely new construction.
Not saying you’re wrong, especially about fences and trees, but I would be surprised to see large trenches.
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Oh I know, it seems ridiculous. But if you "touch it" you have to upgrade it to current safety standards, just like doing a renovation on a house. So if they want to do aaaaany work at all on the Spurline, they will have to bring it all up to code. Which means ditches and fences.
Those curious dated signs made me think of this the very first time I used the trail! When I look back on my video of biking alongside our first LRV as it came in, I think "Yeah, I was excited - but I shouldn't have been able to do this!"
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(05-16-2017, 06:21 AM)Canard Wrote: I have a feeling those dated signs suggest that they're going to "upgrade" the rail line...
...ie, the Waterloo Park treatment. Huge trenches, fences, and bye-bye trees.
But after that, does it become "open" overnight?
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There's a trail in Guelph on the west side of Speed river that has fences and it's not terrible to ride... the worst thing about the Guelph trail is the ridiculous gates not the fences along the trail. The fences are galvanized but there aren't any ditches, just a wide strip of ballast. You can streetview it at Marcon St where it starts to follow the tracks. When I first heard about the spurline trail I thought it would have the same kind of fences.
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I'm just saying that the "look and feel" of the whole trail would be changed completely with the addition of fences and clearing of trees. I get the safety aspect but it would be so unfortunate.
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What trees would have to come down?
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(05-16-2017, 05:27 PM)clasher Wrote: What trees would have to come down?
Everything they planted for example. I'm fairly certain this won't be happening. If it was, there would have been no point in putting in all the landscaping.
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It looks like something is planned for the bit of trail between Regina and Hugh's lane. It has been marked up with white paint indicating the whole stretch should be removed.
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(05-22-2017, 10:48 PM)jwilliamson Wrote: It looks like something is planned for the bit of trail between Regina and Hugh's lane. It has been marked up with white paint indicating the whole stretch should be removed.
"Trail"...where trail is barely a sidewalk and more often than not, parking. Virtually anything they do would be an improvement, so good news then.
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Construction has started on the Weber pedestrian island for the Laurel Trail. It is so frustratingly far North.
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I know Canard cannot see my messages, so I'll ask the general population. How far north? The plan, which I frustratingly cannot locate right now, for the island had it just to the north of the trail I believe, basically between the trail and MacKay Cres. MacKay Crescent is and forever will be (despite it's lack of sidewalk) the trail route so this placement of the island makes perfect sense. I believe the plan also included connecting trails along Weber to get to the crossing which is obviously essential.
The plan looked pretty reasonable (despite some unnecessary increases to turning radii (come on region)), if accepting the the trail route will always follow MacKay Cres. which seems to be something staff at CoW have accepted.
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(05-23-2017, 06:46 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: I know Canard cannot see my messages, so I'll ask the general population. How far north? The plan, which I frustratingly cannot locate right now, for the island had it just to the north of the trail I believe, basically between the trail and MacKay Cres. MacKay Crescent is and forever will be (despite it's lack of sidewalk) the trail route so this placement of the island makes perfect sense. I believe the plan also included connecting trails along Weber to get to the crossing which is obviously essential.
The plan looked pretty reasonable (despite some unnecessary increases to turning radii (come on region)), if accepting the the trail route will always follow MacKay Cres. which seems to be something staff at CoW have accepted.
They've made Noecker and Weber a right-turn only intersection at various times and there's a construction truck hanging out there. But there's also trucks at the creek itself. Not sure where they will actually build things.
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Hmm. I was certain the big rectangular cut I saw as I drove past was North of Mackay, not in the location shown here:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/steveshik">@steveshik</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/CityKitchener">@CityKitchener</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/RegionWaterloo">@RegionWaterloo</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/TriTAG">@TriTAG</a> <br>Weber Street @ Laurel Trail pedestrian refuge has been designed. Construction in 2017 <a href="https://t.co/MLuvCppI0D">pic.twitter.com/MLuvCppI0D</a></p>— John Griffin (@uu_john) <a href="https://twitter.com/uu_john/status/806491510971604994">December 7, 2016</a></blockquote>
Now I'm thinking I remembered wrong. This design looks fine.
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There's been a lot of unrelated underground construction around there the past 2 months. It's possible that the current dig is also unrelated.
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I am extremely excited about this crossing. I hope that it works!
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