ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[KevinL]

Sure looks a lot better than the piece of crap it was before!  Broken crumbling pavement, gross sidewalks, just generally looked like garbage.  Way better now!

Complete agreement here - King needed its streetscape renewed no matter what, and this is far and away from what existed before.

That said, things could still be better. I hope after GrandLinq signs off on their work the city/region come in to add improvements.

[danbrotherston]

I absolutely agree about things being better, yet also having the opportunity for further improvement. The biggest thing though, IMO is not the refreshed look of new pavement and concrete. With the exception of potholes I have no problem with a weather look, but in fact a reduction in traffic volumes and speeds, due to a reduction in width.

Of course, I'm now wishing that the whole thing had been even narrower, a 3 lane carriageway on one side of the rapidway would have made for a much more compact road. I'm guessing this was in feasible due to driveways?

Still, merely going down to 1 (overwide) lane each way has made the road much more pleasant already.

[Canard]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Guiding barrels have been rearranged at the Grade Sep. why can't the concrete be painted, <a href="https://twitter.com/rideIONrt">@rideIONrt</a>? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wrLRT?src=hash">#wrLRT</a> <a href="https://t.co/E3vSsiJrNq">pic.twitter.com/E3vSsiJrNq</a></p>&mdash; Iain Hendry (@Canardiain) <a href="https://twitter.com/Canardiain/status/893234310366494720">August 3, 2017</a></blockquote>

Right as I took those photos, I heard a crunching sound behind me. I turned around, and saw a CT200h heading North, straddling the curb between the road and the rapidway. It drove 4/5 of the way to Wellington like that, smashing and scraping along... and then mounted the curb again, to the inside, and stopped on the tracks with the four-ways on.

This is why I think there should be additional paint markings put down. I have emailed and asked on twitter repeatedly, with no answer, why can't there be paint on the rapidway?

Other cities do it:



...so why not here?

[Waterlooer]

Please let us know once you find out the answer! This has been driving me insane as well.

[ijmorlan]

This is why I think there should be additional paint markings put down.  I have emailed and asked on twitter repeatedly, with no answer, why can't there be paint on the rapidway?

Other cities do it:



...so why not here?

Absolutely right. I think the big red paint areas look great and are extremely visible and they are what we should have here.

Also, if the planners are actually confident in their professionalism, they should be able to provide simple brief answers to questions like that. I know I could provide a brief explanation of just about any decision I made at work. Sometimes it might be “it could go either way and didn’t seem to matter too much” but I would always have something to say.

[Markster]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Guiding barrels have been rearranged at the Grade Sep. why can't the concrete be painted, <a href="https://twitter.com/rideIONrt">@rideIONrt</a>? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wrLRT?src=hash">#wrLRT</a> <a href="https://t.co/E3vSsiJrNq">pic.twitter.com/E3vSsiJrNq</a></p>&mdash; Iain Hendry (@Canardiain) <a href="https://twitter.com/Canardiain/status/893234310366494720">August 3, 2017</a></blockquote>

And that big bulbous yellow paint guideline is certainly not helping.  It makes it look like you're not supposed to drive there on the asphalt part of the road.

[Pheidippides]

The missing curb cut on the west side of Caroline at the safety island north of FDB has been made, but they left the grass and tiny utility cover for now.

Basically they removed the curb between the two arrows:
   

The safety island itself is still of little use to accessing the Willis station though.

Sorry no updated picture.

So big groups of safety vested people (GrandLinq and Region?) moving throughout uptown looking very closely at everything and making detailed notes/checking lists, etc.

[Canard]

And that big bulbous yellow paint guideline is certainly not helping.  It makes it look like you're not supposed to drive there.

...well, you're not.

[Markster]

I don't see why they should guide cars toward the LRT ROW, which the yellow clearly does, instead of guiding them onto the asphalt.  There's an S-bend they're asking cars to make, which just doesn't make sense, and doesn't line up with how the curbs have been poured.

They painted the line, but that doesn't mean the line makes sense.

My father-in-law and I drove up through there the other day, and everything about the concrete and paint is telling you to drive on the LRT tracks.

In other news, lots of concrete rework at Conestoga:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Concrete and stair rework at Conestoga Mall <a href="https://twitter.com/rideIONrt">@rideIONrt</a>, and fencing around the power box is complete <a href="https://t.co/qgp5QHkUgm">pic.twitter.com/qgp5QHkUgm</a></p>&mdash; Mark Jackson-Brown (@Markster3000) <a href="https://twitter.com/Markster3000/status/893473966882529281">August 4, 2017</a></blockquote>

[Canard]

It makes sense if you pretend you're turning left from Moore onto King, heading South... you can't instantly kink around the corner; it's a guide curve line. They're in lots of places along the line.

Your photos... did they just rip out the stairs?! I thought I remembered thinking that they were done.

[Canard]

Please let us know once you find out the answer! This has been driving me insane as well.

Project team tells me that indeed, lane markings and crossing lines, etc. are coming - just aren't added yet.

I cannot fathom why these would not have been completed at the same time as the final pavement markings! Now they're going to have to line up another set of lines with the existing ones, instead of doing it all in one shot...

Absolutely baffling! At any rate, I'm pleased to hear that there's still more guidance to come. It is needed!

[Markster]

It makes sense if you pretend you're turning left from Moore onto King, heading South... you can't instantly kink around the corner; it's a guide curve line.  They're in lots of places along the line.

Yeah, I've seen them in other places, and I have similar issues with them in those spots too. We don't use yellow guide lines around central medians anywhere else, and when you put them here, it is a recipe for overcorrection and mixed signals.

Your photos... did they just rip out the stairs?!  I thought I remembered thinking that they were done.

They did! They actually ripped them out a couple weeks ago. This week, they ripped out a lot of the ground level concrete too. I'm not sure what was wrong. The bus bays are being re-poured very similarly to what they were before.

[Canard]

Could you draw on here what you think would be a better design, to eliminate the "bump out" guide line?

   

I just really hope we're not once again hating on Engineers without understanding the design intent.

[Canard]

Have just been informed concrete for the Rapidway can't be painted until the sealing is finished. That's where they remove the white plastic spacer strips and put in the black goop.

[jamincan]

I don't have a problem with the bump out, but they really should put diagonal striped lines inside it to make it more clear. Hopefully the final version with the painted concrete will be clearer. I drove through there on Wednesday night as well and found it rather awkward and confusing as well.