ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Canard]

A shame all that beautiful new landscaping is now destroyed...

[ijmorlan]

A shame all that beautiful new landscaping is now destroyed...

Nothing has been destroyed except for some grass that is growing where pavement should be. It would be a bigger shame if people just accepted whatever bad decisions were made. The fact that both paths are now obviously well-travelled proves that it’s not just me: the problem really is with the plan, not with one guy who has it in for grass in certain locations.

[KevinL]

They were installing some wooden boxes at the bottom of two of the catenary poles at Caroline/Erb today. They were wrapping them in tarps. One of them had a big blue extension cord sticking out. Any ideas what for?

I presume they've poured some kind of concrete shell around the base, probably to make the giant bolts that hold down these poles less of a hazard (see Street View for a 'before' look).

[danbrotherston]

They were installing some wooden boxes at the bottom of two of the catenary poles at Caroline/Erb today. They were wrapping them in tarps. One of them had a big blue extension cord sticking out. Any ideas what for?

I presume they've poured some kind of concrete shell around the base, probably to make the giant bolts that hold down these poles less of a hazard (see Street View for a 'before' look).

Interesting, I guess they assume they will never need to unbolt them.  Makes me wonder why they use bolts in the first place...

[Canard]

Standard practice. It’s called grouting. They set the anchor bolts in the concrete, and set the pole flange over the bolts, using nuts on both sides to adjust the height and angle precisely. Once they’re happy with it they fill in the base with concrete.

Virtually every steel roller coaster is built this way.

[Pheidippides]

Well I saw the one closest to the road before it got boxed up and nothing had been poured yet; but they were probably just preparing the cover for when the concrete did arrive.

Thanks!

[Canard]

Warming tents (“hoarding”) is up now at Conestoga near (but not around) the Fastrax switch heaters of the crossover.

The hoarding tents have also grown at Borden and Charles - now a full half-tube 2 or 3 m high, encompassing the entire curve.

A couple of guys were in the yard at the OMSF picking away at one of the switches.

A shame - today was supposed to be pretty exciting so I’m sad it’s been postponed. Hopefully more activity out on the line next week.

[Pheidippides]

More new signage in uptown. Interestingly installed by regional trucks/workers not GrandLinq/Keolis.
   

They installed quite a few across uptown today.

[Canard]

They’re all over the entire line - that was fast!! I was giving my folks a tour of the line yesterday afternoon and noticed them everywhere.

[trainspotter139]

More new signage in uptown. Interestingly installed by regional trucks/workers not GrandLinq/Keolis.


They installed quite a few across uptown today.

These new ones are for pedestrians i think. the larger ones are for drivers.

[Canard]

I talked to one of the construction workers at Borden and Charles today while biking by.

• The rails are out of position in the curve by a few millimetres.
  
• The massive half-tube tent over top of the curve is so they can keep working on it in the winter.
  
• There is about 150 mm of concrete absent on both sides of the outboard rail.
  
• didn’t ask him about timeline, but he did confirm it has delayed testing, and they’re reworking their plans (lots of paperwork) and focusing their efforts now on the Northern part of the line (watch for LRV testing on Northfield to Conestoga next week).

(Not sharing this on Facebook or twitter.)

[trainspotter139]

I talked to one of the construction workers at Borden and Charles today while biking by.

• The rails are out of position in the curve by a few millimetres.
  
• The massive half-tube tent over top of the curve is so they can keep working on it in the winter.
  
• There is about 150 mm of concrete absent on both sides of the outboard rail.
  
• didn’t ask him about timeline, but he did confirm it has delayed testing, and they’re reworking their plans (lots of paperwork) and focusing their efforts now on the Northern part of the line (watch for LRV testing on Northfield to Conestoga next week).
  

(Not sharing this on Facebook or twitter.)

That would explain the gauge checking on the other curves.

It is a good thing that they found this no matter when it was found. a curve that is out by a few millimetres would cause too much wear on the bogies, make a lot of squealing noise or cause a train to derail.

[ijmorlan]

I talked to one of the construction workers at Borden and Charles today while biking by.

• The rails are out of position in the curve by a few millimetres.
  
• The massive half-tube tent over top of the curve is so they can keep working on it in the winter.
  
• There is about 150 mm of concrete absent on both sides of the outboard rail.
  
• didn’t ask him about timeline, but he did confirm it has delayed testing, and they’re reworking their plans (lots of paperwork) and focusing their efforts now on the Northern part of the line (watch for LRV testing on Northfield to Conestoga next week).
  

(Not sharing this on Facebook or twitter.)

That would explain the gauge checking on the other curves.

It is a good thing that they found this no matter when it was found. a curve that is out by a few millimetres would cause too much wear on the bogies, make a lot of squealing noise or cause a train to derail.

My question would be why is this finally getting detected and fixed now. Given that service was supposed to start last year, shouldn’t the tracks and other system components have been ready for LRVs in advance of the originally-planned opening day? Gauge checking should have been done at most weeks after the initial track installation and the corrections could have been made a year ago. Why the lack of urgency throughout this entire project? This part isn’t Bombardier’s fault.

[danbrotherston]

That would explain the gauge checking on the other curves.

It is a good thing that they found this no matter when it was found. a curve that is out by a few millimetres would cause too much wear on the bogies, make a lot of squealing noise or cause a train to derail.

My question would be why is this finally getting detected and fixed now. Given that service was supposed to start last year, shouldn’t the tracks and other system components have been ready for LRVs in advance of the originally-planned opening day? Gauge checking should have been done at most weeks after the initial track installation and the corrections could have been made a year ago. Why the lack of urgency throughout this entire project? This part isn’t Bombardier’s fault.

This is my thoughts, this substantially weakens the claim that if we only had trains, we'd have been running them.  There seems to be a lack of hurrying to get this train on the tracks as it were.

[Pheidippides]

Was it that the rail out of position because of the position it was embedded in or out of position because the pre-curving wasn't done properly to specifications?

Apologies for the lack of construction knowledge, but exactly what is the fix here?

Aren't all the tracks welded together now? How do you just fix one section of track without affecting the two end points of where everything is in alignment?

Won't they have to cut the troubled section out, remove the entire curve, and put it or a new piece back in the right position? Do they just heat it up and bang in to position?

It interesting that this was not caught before. I know I saw them checking that curve before. It was right around the time the had to shave off and re-pour some of the platform edges. Is it even possible with all the reinforcing that something simply heaved in the cold weather?