Trails

[Canard]

The new wooden ramp on the far side of the LRT alignment through Waterloo Park is now open.  It's great!

   

   

   

[ijmorlan]

The new wooden ramp on the far side of the LRT alignment through Waterloo Park is now open.  It's great!

I’ve been using it the last few days. Agreed! And it smells nice too. It’s a great alternative to the main path on the other side of the tracks during construction.

[Canard]

Yeah, I hate the big hill up toward the washrooms and then the pothole-laden road up there. This is much better!

The footers for the bridge are really coming along, too - it'll be exciting when the span shows up!

[Pheidippides]

Lost in all the Ion news is a list of 2018 active transportation projects by the region in the committee meeting the day before.

Updates on other initiatives too:
5.1 Separated Bike Lane Pilot Update - G. Keyworth
5.2 Bikeshare Update – K. Marshall
6.1 Farmers Market Trail – K. Marshall/C. Hodgson (City of Waterloo)
6.2 Cedar Creek Road and Highway 401 Interchange Reconstruction – G. Keyworth
6.3 Snyder’s Road Creek Crossing – B. Forwell

[Canard]

Why was there nothing in the minutes about the Bikeshare update (DropBike)?

Edit - omg. Why do they make these so confusing. Am I reading this right that the "Top" part is what WILL be discussed at the upcoming meeting, and the "Bottom" part is a summary of what was discussed at a previous meeting?

[Canard]

The new bridge for the Central Promenade reconstruction through Waterloo Park is now to be installed May 10 or 11! That is weeks earlier than previously announced!

[ijmorlan]

The new bridge for the Central Promenade reconstruction through Waterloo Park is now to be installed May 10 or 11! That is weeks earlier than previously announced!

Good news!

Although previously it was announced for months earlier:

https://twitter.com/uu_john/status/931252240328753152

Specifically “Approximately mid-January 2018”. But that schedule was always a fantasy, given the climate.

Funny thing is, overall I think John Griffin is doing a great job of communicating about the project. He provides a mix of regular announcements about what is happening and related interesting items. I just don’t understand why anybody ever thought the bridge was going to be installed in mid-January.

[Canard]

I discovered the MUT on Caroline is closed at Freemont St. with a big giant hole.

   

[danbrotherston]

Because of course it is....so frustrating...no warning, no detour.

[Pheidippides]

I wonder, given the late start to the construction season (especially compared to last year), if they should hold off starting the IHT upgrades until after the peak cycling season (although that didn't work out so well for the central promenade project).

The contract says that all work should be done by 15-Jul-2018, but that is only 58 work days away now. I am torn. While I am eager to see these upgrades made I wouldn't want to see trail closed the entire good weather season when it inevitably takes longer than expected.

Thoughts?

[Canard]

I'm torn the same way as you, for the same reasons. Although I'd almost rather they do it in the summer, where there are lots of other places to ride... in the winter, the IHT and Spurline Trail are basically the only two things I ride, so having one of them out of commission would really limit where I go when I'm out.

[plam]

Final pavement is in, as well as all curbs, the most that will change here is some paint.  Does anyone have any idea what's intended?

This simply boggles my mind.  Westbound cyclists are dumped out on the wrong side of the road facing oncoming traffic.  And turning traffic is likely to turn into their path.  Why end the trail 20 meters short of the intersection.

Honestly, anyone has any idea.

So I don't know what seems to have happened but I was just there at Lexington and Davenport again and it somehow didn't seem to be like that. Instead the multi-use trail seems to go to the corner? It was weird and bad a month ago. Now I just can't remember exactly what I saw an hour ago.

[clasher]

Final pavement is in, as well as all curbs, the most that will change here is some paint.  Does anyone have any idea what's intended?

This simply boggles my mind.  Westbound cyclists are dumped out on the wrong side of the road facing oncoming traffic.  And turning traffic is likely to turn into their path.  Why end the trail 20 meters short of the intersection.

Honestly, anyone has any idea.

So I don't know what seems to have happened but I was just there at Lexington and Davenport again and it somehow didn't seem to be like that. Instead the multi-use trail seems to go to the corner? It was weird and bad a month ago. Now I just can't remember exactly what I saw an hour ago.

I rode through there on friday. It does indeed just end at the north-west side of the intersection with the ever-so-helpful "cyclists dismount and walk" sign. It's friggin' ridiculous. I usually just ride on the road if I'm heading eastbound toward rim park. The green path part needs a streetsweep but so do many roads in town. It's comicallly terrible;  ISTM the design criteria was to make something that didn't disturb the car lanes too much. The road diet that was proposed a while back was a better idea, there are huge wide boulevards on the rest of the road so a plain old MUP on both sides would have been preferable to me. If the goal is to get cyclists to the mall a MUP following the highway/powerlines all the way to the offramp seems like a pretty easy way to go, there is a little path/park that goes into the subdivision too, but it's closed according to a small sign I noticed on friday.

[Pheidippides]

Does this tweet from City of Kitchener imply that the IHT work will be done in stages? Victoria north to Glasgow then Victoria south to Queen?

https://twitter.com/CityKitchener/status...3292777472

So 5 weeks detour on one section, followed by a similar number of weeks detour on the other (for a total 10+ week severing of the IHT).

[danbrotherston]

Does this tweet from City of Kitchener imply that the IHT work will be done in stages? Victoria north to Glasgow then Victoria south to Queen?

https://twitter.com/CityKitchener/status...3292777472

So 5 weeks detour on one section, followed by a similar number of weeks detour on the other (for a total 10+ week severing of the IHT).

That is a good question...I'm not sure "staged" is the right word, IIRC, the north work is actually waterworks related and thus a different contract, and planned long before.

Still, 10+ weeks sans trail would make for a disappointing summer.