ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[KevinL]

That's one way to do it! Great catch.

[panamaniac]

Today's adventure in Downtown detours - I was heading down Victoria St N and remembered that I needed to pick something up from U-Haul. Being clever, I turned onto Water St to detour down to Joseph St and over to Victoria, where I turned right to find that Victoria St S was closed at Charles, not at King as I expected. I sort of idled in the middle of Victoria St as I contemplated the implications of this until I realized that I could double back to Water St and then turn down Halls Lane to get into U-Haul. Anyone unfamiliar with the lane would be at a loss (if there were any signs pointing the way to U-Haul, but I didn't notice any). Now, I am not generally inclined to feel badly for U-Haul franchisees, but that's rough!

[tomh009]

Curbs now also poured between Ontario and Queen (albeit still with some gaps).  And sidewalks mostly done on Charles between Benton and Cedar.

[GtwoK]

Charles from Water to Francis was also MOSTLY paved today, as expected. I'm sure they'll finish that up tomorrow and move on from Francis to Victoria.

Wow, it's like every day now that a new road is paved, or significant new pieces are completed! We're speeding ahead now!

It occurred to me the other day that we're probably at peak closure capacity right now. I don't think we'll have any more intersections closed at a time than we do currently. It's all uphill from here!

[timio]

It occurred to me the other day that we're probably at peak closure capacity right now. I don't think we'll have any more intersections closed at a time than we do currently. It's all uphill from here!

Shhhh... they might read this and close Frederick from Charles to Duke just to prove you wrong.

[Markster]

It occurred to me the other day that we're probably at peak closure capacity right now. I don't think we'll have any more intersections closed at a time than we do currently. It's all uphill from here!

And I thought we hit that back in March!

But then Charles has been taking its sweet time opening back up.

Like, they could totally open Charles from Water to Ontario now.
But... they... don't...

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/GRT_ROW">@GRT_ROW</a> buses are now getting caught in the Water St traffic jam. How about opening Charles back up? <a href="https://twitter.com/rideIONrt">@rideIONrt</a> <a href="https://t.co/324InnBJPq">pic.twitter.com/324InnBJPq</a></p>&mdash; Mark Jackson-Brown (@Markster3000) <a href="https://twitter.com/Markster3000/status/738499467079487491">June 2, 2016</a></blockquote>

[tomh009]

I think a second coat of asphalt is about to go on -- see the paint around the manhole covers.

[Canard]

Beautiful evening tonight. Looks like the "Allen Curve" is just about finished!

   

   

   

[GtwoK]

Anybody else fascinated by watching construction progress? I stood here a good 30 minutes today just watching them roll out the pavement! It's great seeing this finally just about complete, embedded track and all. We're almost there!





Back at Queen / Charles, there's something strange going on. This median isn't in any of the plans, and I'm not sure what purpose it would serve? ALSO: note the depressed curb against the strip mall property. Could this be for another entrance to the parking lot? Seems EXTREMELY close to the intersection; the depressed curb for the crosswalk is just out of frame!



Anyway, ground here was also steam rolled today. I don't know if they'll pour asphalt before embedding track or not (the intersection is supposed to reopen next week...)

[KevinL]

Back at Queen / Charles, there's something strange going on. This median isn't in any of the plans, and I'm not sure what purpose it would serve? ALSO: note the depressed curb against the strip mall property. Could this be for another entrance to the parking lot? Seems EXTREMELY close to the intersection; the depressed curb for the crosswalk is just out of frame!

Those two things could go hand in hand. They may allow right turns from Queen to enter the parking lot, but to avoid the dangerous left turns they built the median.

[Markster]

Anybody else fascinated by watching construction progress? I stood here a good 30 minutes today just watching them roll out the pavement! It's great seeing this finally just about complete, embedded track and all. We're almost there!

Heh, did you see my post over here?
http://www.waterlooregionconnected.com/s...8#pid22538

A few friends and I camped out for 2~3 hours watching the Queen St work. Overnight.

[Canard]

It's safe to say GtwoK is not the only one excited by this project!  Some of us may also be slightly enthused about the idea of urban rail coming to Waterloo Region.

As I've mentioned, my folks live not too far from Bombardier's Millhaven facility, where our trains were previously only to undergo high-speed testing - but now trains 6-14 will also be built here. They were in the area yesterday running some errands, and grabbed a couple of photos for me.

Here's the test track our trains will be blasting along, hopefully by year's end! This is the track that runs along the North end of the facility, and was built for testing Toroto's TR (MOVIA) subway sets. I spotted the catenary going up earlier this year and suspected that this was where our FLEXITY Freedom sets would get to stretch their legs.

   

[tomh009]

Anyway, ground here was also steam rolled today. I don't know if they'll pour asphalt before embedding track or not (the intersection is supposed to reopen next week...)

That's what it looks like.  Paving equipment in position this morning next to Charles & Queen ...

[tomh009]

What is this rebar for?  Ten long cylindrical rebar constructs.  Anyone know?
   

[ElsieEm]

Those are for the poles they put up (cat poles?). I was surprised how deep they go! Here are some pics I took (from my living room window) of them being placed at Duke & Water. 

First they dug (drilled really) the hole, then put in the cylinder, then they filled it with concrete.