ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[tomh009]

Lots of concrete pouring planned for today on Charles between Ontario and Queen. Not just the embedding of the track by Full Circle, but also siewalks and curbs on the other side by the Working Centre.

Remaining concrete pour for the track being completed, in front of Full Circle:
   

Sidewalk work in front of the Charles-Benton garage:
   

[tomh009]

Earlier this morning ...

Filling in some remaining gaps on Charles:
   

EB track has just a wee gap left approaching Bordenn, WB much more so:
   

The rails are placed between Borden and Ottawa.  Rebar grid is also on site:
   

Someone asked about the pedestrian bridge:
   

Both curbs now poured on Ottawa, and the surface is properly graded.  Now need the curb between the roadway and the embedded track:
   

[MacBerry]

I think we've pretty much established that the general public have very little respect or understanding for worksite safety. I'm amazed nobody has been injured or killed yet.

The sad part is that if something happens it will be fault of someone else and not the trespassing party.

[MacBerry]

In the second photo, is that a pedestrian and bicycle bridge?

Aren't bicycles required to use the roadway?

[danbrotherston]

There are some multi use pathways which bikes share with pedestrians. This isn't one of them though.

[Pheidippides]

Anchor wall frame on Willis is up:
   

I think some of those temporary wooden poles along King in and around Uptown are about to be replaced by metal poles...in the middle of the sidewalk. This was taken beside the Bauer lofts:
   

Some pictures of the old culvert under King on the north side of the tracks:
   
   

[danbrotherston]

I think some of those temporary wooden poles along King in and around Uptown are about to be replaced by metal poles...in the middle of the sidewalk. This was taken beside the Bauer lofts:

Really?  That's incredibly frustrating, they should just move them to the edge.

[tvot]

Some daylight photos of the King @ Allen bridge:

   

   

And the building of the platform's feature wall structure (I can't remember what the correct term is):

   

The old railway ties from Caroline & Erb:

   

[megabytephreak]

Some daylight photos of the King @ Allen bridge:

Which is now gone. They removed it when they pulled the tracks into place for the curve from King to Allen. Concrete was poured today for the northbound side through the intersection of King & Allen.

I didn't get a photo, but there was much heavier rebar on the concrete sections withing the intersection than the sections that will only see LRT traffic. For the intersections there is a heavy C-Shaped section of what looks like 3/4" rebar, where as the straight sections have just the grid of 1/2" or so. I wonder how long roads would last if we built them out of concrete with that kind of reinforcement.

[timc]

I wonder how long roads would last if we built them out of concrete with that kind of reinforcement.

I imagine they would last until the first water main break.

[Markster]

I wonder how long roads would last if we built them out of concrete with that kind of reinforcement.

I imagine they would last until the first water main break.  

And that's why they moved the water mains out from under the LRT tracks. That would not be fun to dig through under a regular street!

[Canard]

This fact is never explained to people by the media, ever, and I think it would be a huge "...oh." moment for those who don't get "why it takes so long" to build LRT.

This project is seriously like 75% utility work and 25% building a train.

Very happy we are mostly in the "building a train" phase.

[tomh009]

Charles St morning update!

WB rails already welded at Borden (albeit only a fairly short segment):
   

Ready for the curbing machine, for the curb separating the embedded track from the roadway, on "WB" Ottawa St:
   

Track now completely embedded between Ontario St and Queen St.  The shoulders (?) still need to be poured, though, as well as the drive ramp to the Full Circle parking lot:
   

[nms]

With respect the challenges of pedestrian crossings around Waterloo Square.  The reason that pedestrians are taking unorthodox (and potentially dangerous) detours is that there is often not very clear signage about where a temporary crossing is.  In Uptown Waterloo, the big crossing across King Street is very welcome, but there is no clear north-south crossing.  At one point I was attempting to walk from the Waterloo Public Library back to where I had parked my car in the parking lot south of Willis Way.  I dutifully followed the "Pedestrian crossing this way" arrows until they suddenly reversed direction meaning that the crossing was imaginary.  I eventually found a route on my own.

[ijmorlan]

This fact is never explained to people by the media, ever, and I think it would be a huge "...oh." moment for those who don't get "why it takes so long" to build LRT.

This project is seriously like 75% utility work and 25% building a train.

Very happy we are mostly in the "building a train" phase.

This is why the design standards for regional roads should call for an LRT reservation. For example, Fischer-Hallman should be designed to have an LRT running down the middle, and should be built as if it had an LRT running down the middle, just without any LRT-specific construction. Then whenever it is determined that a new LRT route is needed, it can be built with minimal disruption — probably not much more than lane closures.

I’m also happy we’re in the “building a train” phase. Although it feels like we’re still in a massive construction project, and we are, there isn’t actually much time left in many places. Soon roads will start opening up and traffic will assume its post-construction state.