ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Bob_McBob]

Open to traffic as of about 40 minutes ago

https://twitter.com/Canardiain/status/89...2506920961

[p2ee]

Great news. I believe that was the last major closure. All current or upcoming closures appear to be very short term.

[KevinL]

All we need now are the trains!

[Canard]

Looks like the stakes I spotted a week or so ago are indeed for that overheight detector for the automatic derail device on the Waterloo Spur:

   

   

Nice fresh pavement on Northfield:

   

Love riding along the Waterloo Spur:

   

The ceramic tiles on the anchor walls at Conestoga sure do pop in the sunset:

   

[Canard]

They didn't quite get the concrete finished for the sidewalks, so for the next couple of days, the sidewalk will be the Northbound rapidway.

   

Opening ceremony:

   

...open!

   

[Bob_McBob]

Region says cost of LRT dome may never be known

So as I understand the bargaining process, Grandlinq will submit a list of all contractual cost overruns the region is responsible for, and the region will bargain down the total to arrive at a final payout amount, which just means we won't get an itemized list of individual final bargained claims. We'll know how much Grandlinq requested for the dome, how much they requested overall, and how much of that total the region paid out. Facebook translation: the region is utterly incompetent at accounting and the LRT is officially a failure 

[Canard]

Yeah, I wish the whole dome thing would just die. Who cares? Do the same people complaining about it also complain about the 3bn spent on an new wastewater treatment plant? Do they even know about it? The only reason the dome is "a thing" is because the media is just looking for things to make people get angry.

[ijmorlan]

Yeah, I wish the whole dome thing would just die. Who cares? Do the same people complaining about it also complain about the 3bn spent on an new wastewater treatment plant? Do they even know about it? The only reason the dome is "a thing" is because the media is just looking for things to make people get angry.

Right on the money. If people want to get upset at the LRT they should complain about the amount of re-work that has been needed, or the lack of care taken to integrating bicycle infrastructure. Neither of these invalidates the project as something that will be good for the city, but at least there is an actual significant impact on people. The dome is just extremely visible. The sewage plant by contrast is invisible unless you go to very specific places on certain trails. Maybe they should have just charged the sewage plant for the LRT dome

[Canard]

If people want to get upset at the LRT they should complain about the amount of re-work that has been needed, or the lack of care taken to integrating bicycle infrastructure.

Cost to you = $0

Agreed on the bike infra - which has been reported exactly 0 times by the media during the last 5 years.

[ijmorlan]

If people want to get upset at the LRT they should complain about the amount of re-work that has been needed, or the lack of care taken to integrating bicycle infrastructure.

Cost to you = $0

Agreed on the bike infra - which has been reported exactly 0 times by the media during the last 5 years.

Oh indeed, that is the upside of the fixed-cost contract. But it has caused some extra disruption. Although I suppose in the end we’re at substantial completion on time even with the re-work, so maybe it’s not that significant. Maybe I should have instead mentioned the lack of public consultation on the detailed design, which of course is tied in to the bike infrastructure issue — many changes made to the detailed design as compared to the RFP are things which, if proposed separately, would have gone through public consultation.

But yeah, enough about the dome already. Is nothing else happening in this city?

[clasher]

The hydro vault at Duke and Queen was open to traffic again so I guess they're done or maybe they just moved the fence off the road for the weekend?

[Canard]

That would be my guess; I don't think they've started their work yet. They said they need 3 weeks or so IIRC.

[ijmorlan]

Last I saw, they were reporting that 99% (not 100%) of track is installed as of the last couple of days. Does anybody know where any track is not yet in place? 1% would only be a couple hundred meters, right?

[KevinL]

The only track I don't think is final is the last couple meters at Fairway, just before the buffers.

But I keep hearing of 98-99% 'system completion', ie, not necessarily tracks, but wiring, lubricators, signals, etc.

[Canard]

Right, tracks are complete except for the buffers Kevin mentioned (you can see the extensions in my photos from a few days ago).

Doom-and-Gloom UrbanToronto reports that Waterloo is "WAY BEHIND!" and "NOTHING IS READY!". They love to spread filth, like saying our signaling system is "nowhere near ready for testing" and the like.

...I think they're just jealous.