ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[GtwoK]

The final tracks now extend from the OMSF South to just North of Albert McCormic Arena.  The Mark 4 looks like it is ready to do some alignment now on this section; I assume they can't progress any further South until the trail crossing at McCormic and the Quiet Place crossing are completed.  Once Seagram is done as well, they'll have a full long run of the entire Waterloo Spur that can be completed.

What's left to do at the Quiet Place crossing?

[Canard]

The final tracks now extend from the OMSF South to just North of Albert McCormic Arena.  The Mark 4 looks like it is ready to do some alignment now on this section; I assume they can't progress any further South until the trail crossing at McCormic and the Quiet Place crossing are completed.  Once Seagram is done as well, they'll have a full long run of the entire Waterloo Spur that can be completed.

What's left to do at the Quiet Place crossing?

...build it?  It's still just old tracks and the old crossing.  When they lay the new tracks they'll have to build the pedestrian crossing (think of a mini version of the road crossings).  Not a big deal, but it has to be done.

[GtwoK]

What's left to do at the Quiet Place crossing?

...build it?  It's still just old tracks and the old crossing.  When they lay the new tracks they'll have to build the pedestrian crossing (think of a mini version of the road crossings).  Not a big deal, but it has to be done.

Agh, damn, I just remember months ago when construction first started, there were blog posts about the Quiet Place crossing being worked on. I had assumed they finished it long ago and moved on, working on the crossings in order from North to South.

[timio]

Think they'll do Erb/Caroline this year? It'll be an obscure detour for traffic - Westmount > University > King maybe?

It'll be more involved as it will mean the wye in the parking lot at Waterloo Town Square will need to be put in place at the same time as with likely most of the re-location of the spur through the parking lot to King as well. Almost makes sense to do it before Caroline re-opens this fall to avoid any bad feelings that may occur by closing it fully again for any length of time.

[GtwoK]

Think they'll do Erb/Caroline this year?  It'll be an obscure detour for traffic - Westmount > University > King maybe?

It'll be more involved as it will mean the wye in the parking lot at Waterloo Town Square will need to be put in place at the same time as with likely most of the re-location of the spur through the parking lot to King as well.  Almost makes sense to do it before Caroline re-opens this fall to avoid any bad feelings that may occur by closing it fully again for any length of time.

I'd imagine they would, but I might just be ignorant. I feel as though the tracks along the spur from Northfield to Laurel Creek should be completely done by mid-September-ish? After that it would make sense to get the Erb / Caroline intersection out of the way to open up traffic again there for the winter.

[Canard]

From the ion update that I just received:

In September, Caroline will be ready for the new LRT track, and work to build the rest of the ION infrastructure (i.e., asphalt, final curbs, sidewalks, poles and the overhead wires that power the train) will begin

[timio]

Lots of other info in there too. Utility work is starting on Northfield and King near Conestoga mall will begin soon. Work on the embankment along Hayward, Courtland and the Hydro Corridor north of Fairway starts soon as well.

[Canard]

One year in, one year to go until the heavy construction is just about wrapped up! Hard to believe.

[Pheidippides]

Research and Technology station
August 15, 2015

Is that some sort of concrete form?

[timio]

University was being paved as I passed by this afternoon while Seagram was a giant hole. Didn't take long to get into things after closing.

Crews were digging up part of the south sidewalk on Allen. Not sure if it's related to ION, but it's a start.

[KevinL]

Got a look at the rail-welding work on Charles this morning.



The finished pieces stretch from a bit below Madison, all the way to nearly Cedar.


Edit: Looking at the markings, each welded piece is 560 feet and there will be 30 of them. That's 5.12 km of track just in this load.

[MacBerry]

Research and Technology station
August 15, 2015

Is that some sort of concrete form?

What does everyone think the LRT users will call the Research and Technology Station? Users will never stick with that politically motivated name and the too long when your drunk name? 

"I'm only going as far as "RTS"? 

I get on at the "RT" and off at "Caroline"!

Thoughts on this name mess and the others?

[Canard]

Edit: Looking at the markings, each welded piece is 560 feet and there will be 30 of them. That's 5.12 km of track just in this load.

5.12 km of rail... 2.56 km of track

[Canard]

Hey everyone,

I have an idea for something, but I'm not really savvy with computer graphics programs.  I think it would be great to have a "live document" that we could all contribute to, that would be a map of the route and we could mark it up showing construction progress.  I think everyone checks out their own favourite sections of the route (like Markster goes along the Laurel Trail in uptown waterloo, KevinL posts about the work on Caroline, I drive up to the OMSF a lot...), so if we could all have access to some kind of map we could colour-code in like, where they are at with each section.  Red line could be ground/dirt work, blue line could be services and utility work, green line could indicate the completed track, that kind of thing.  Right now there would just be a green line from the OMSF South to behind McCormic Arena, and then very short green lines at Bearanger, Columbia, and University crossings, etc...

What do you think?  Or is this a job for a multi-contributor Goggle Map?

Edit - Looks like Google Maps is the way to go!  I've used the Functional Design Drawings to lay out the route as a layer; Blue is the route, red is ground prep, yellow is completed track.

   

[ijmorlan]

Edit: Looking at the markings, each welded piece is 560 feet and there will be 30 of them. That's 5.12 km of track just in this load.

5.12 km of rail... 2.56 km of track

1.28km of double track!

So there will be lots more rail still to come, probably at various locations along the line. I assume everybody here knows about the rail-welding operation that just finished near the former tourist train station in Waterloo? There are dozens of long strings laid parallel to the tracks there, clearly more than will be used in that immediate area. I suspect the rails for Caroline St. are included in that batch.