ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Lens]

Good to see the clergy house for St. Mary's is now unobscured.

Here it was before: https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.4517613,-...6656?hl=en

[GtwoK]

They could have at least transplanted those trees

[tomh009]

A bit further up Duke, this retaining wall has been finished. Nice to see it complement the existing buildings' brickwork.

Indeed ... it's a different style from the one on Charles, across from Full Circle.  It seems they actually picked an appropriate finish in each case.

[zanate]

Yeah, I know, sorry... I'm one of those annoying people who is just loving this upheaval of the whole city.  Once construction finishes, things are going to be very dark and quiet for a while, until closer to the end of 2017.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Yikes! Stop bar is missing from straight-through right lane. Asking for trouble. <a href="https://twitter.com/rideIONrt">@rideIONrt</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/RegionWaterloo">@RegionWaterloo</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wrLRT?src=hash">#wrLRT</a> <a href="https://t.co/RaA0LjOjSO">pic.twitter.com/RaA0LjOjSO</a></p>&mdash; iain (@Canardiain) <a href="https://twitter.com/Canardiain/status/777158363213946880">September 17, 2016</a></blockquote>

Edit - After looking at the Functional Design Plans, I think what's happened is the Left Turn Lane is just painted way, way too far ahead:

Well! That explains the curb cut on the right. That's a crosswalk, folks! They painted the turn lane right through the crosswalk. Sigh.

Edit:  I took a closer look at the picture and it's not a curb cut at all. In fact it looks like the crossing isn't there at all, but has been moved up closer to the intersection. Looks like a design change, but it doesn't solve the squeezed lane problem. Hard to figure out what here is actual intent and what is oversight.

[bpoland]

Yeah definitely looks like the plans we have access to are not up to date. The stop bar will have to be pretty far back, maybe they could put some crosshatch past it to emphasize that you can't stop close to the tracks?

[Canard]

My guess is that since the final top layer of pavement isn't on, that this is going to all get repainted once it does. The left turn lane is the problem, it's much further ahead than depicted in the Functional Design Plans.

So this is probably just a screw-up (how?), and will get fixed once the final pavement goes down. I hope.

[bpoland]

It seems like more than just a painting mistake though. Isn't the crosswalk farther into the curve than the plans indicate?

[urbd]

I noticed a sign at the GRT bus stop on William/Caroline that William will close on September 21 for 2 months, with a map saying that Erb/Caroline should be open from that day for the detour.

[Markster]

My guess is that since the final top layer of pavement isn't on, that this is going to all get repainted once it does. The left turn lane is the problem, it's much further ahead than depicted in the Functional Design Plans.

So this is probably just a screw-up (how?), and will get fixed once the final pavement goes down. I hope.

As far as I can tell, it seems that Duke St was supposed to bend further to the south in the original plans.

   

You can see there's a bulb of buffer space next to the LRT in that plan drawing, that isn't reflected in the final product. The through lane is simply pressed right up against the LRT.

[tomh009]

Embedded track being poured today at King/Victoria.

   

   

[Canard]

Beautiful mid-day shots as always, Tom!

[tomh009]

Thanks, Iain. Makes a change from my recent early-morning ones!

[Canard]

Those are great too! This morning, I drove my husband to the University and we passed by the Laurier/Waterloo Park station, and the guys had started cutting out all the platform concrete for the grounding rework. The dust kicking up in the morning sun was breathtaking - I cursed I didn't have my camera with me!

[timc]

Speaking of grounding rework, what is happening at the UW station? I thought they already reworked it for grounding, but they have chiseled the entire edge of concrete out again?

[Canard]

They're not done - it's still ongoing. It was like 2+ months of work at R&T. The first 5 platforms they poured will have this done - they caught it on platform 6.