Victoria Park

[ac3r]

Annoyingly, almost 2 months after my photo the bridge and path are still not open... As far as I can tell it's just been waiting for the path to be repaved for weeks.

Why does this have to take so long? Been having to walk through mud every time it rains for months now.

That's how construction goes in the west. Nation states like the People's Republic of China can build entire lengths of high speed railway in a matter of weeks, but over here you've got to deal with politics, approvals, environmental checks, labour contracts, unions, budgets, safety etc just to get a 15 meter-odd footbridge open. It's rather sad. A century ago they would have had this thing done over a weekend.

[plam]

Annoyingly, almost 2 months after my photo the bridge and path are still not open... As far as I can tell it's just been waiting for the path to be repaved for weeks.

Why does this have to take so long? Been having to walk through mud every time it rains for months now.

That's how construction goes in the west. Nation states like the People's Republic of China can build entire lengths of high speed railway in a matter of weeks, but over here you've got to deal with politics, approvals, environmental checks, labour contracts, unions, budgets, safety etc just to get a 15 meter-odd footbridge open. It's rather sad. A century ago they would have had this thing done over a weekend.

With occasional people getting killed in the construction process and communities being destroyed by unwanted infrastructure, but sure.

[ac3r]

Yeah that happens there but this is THE WEST. I would think we could build a foot bridge whilst dealing with what union worker gets to operate the backhoe, who gets to place the pylons without grievance issues and what the cheapest asphalt contractor is to get a footbridge open over a glorified storm water retention pond without having to wait literal months. It's a bit pathetic. Not like they're building the Hoover Dam here.

Edit: Note, not against unions, I'm just throwing that out there to say that is why bureaucracy is a pain in the ass. Unions are great.

[tomh009]

At the moment all construction projects are struggling with getting sufficient trades and subcontractors to do work. I have no inside knowledge but I think it's most likely that the city is still waiting for the paving contractor to have a crew available for this (which is a very small project for any contractor).

[panamaniac]

At the moment all construction projects are struggling with getting sufficient trades and subcontractors to do work. I have no inside knowledge but I think it's most likely that the city is still waiting for the paving contractor to have a crew available for this (which is a very small project for any contractor).

 That is the most likely explanation.

[danbrotherston]

At the moment all construction projects are struggling with getting sufficient trades and subcontractors to do work. I have no inside knowledge but I think it's most likely that the city is still waiting for the paving contractor to have a crew available for this (which is a very small project for any contractor).

 That is the most likely explanation.

I mean, like all things this has little to do with anything besides money. If the city wanted it done, they could do it, but it would cost more, and the taxpayers in this city would throw a tantrum.

[JoeKW]

Construction projects have also slowed due to the supply chain problems the world has been having lately.

[clasher]

The newest bridge is open now, looks like they managed to scrounge up enough asphalt and a crew to do the work.

[danbrotherston]

The newest bridge is open now, looks like they managed to scrounge up enough asphalt and a crew to do the work.

Thank goodness for this, since they appear to have removed the parking restriction from David St. I now expect it to be once again choked with parked cars, meaning the traffic on the road will become distracted and dangerous again, so I expect to be changing my route back to going through the park.

[panamaniac]

I confess that I’ve never seen a street in K-W that was choked with parked cars. Do they park two abreast or can they squeeze in three?

[danbrotherston]

I confess that I’ve never seen a street in K-W that was choked with parked cars.  Do they park two abreast or can they squeeze in three?

The worst places I've seen were in the bay area in California, which of course has a housing crisis greater than our own, and also no winter snow removal challenges. Those neighbourhoods would have cars parked on both sides of all the residential streets all the way up. These are not homes with no on site parking, these are modern sprawling homes with driveways which were also filled with cars, it was difficult to drive in, dangerous, and just ugly as sin.

I've not seen anything like that in KW, we are helped by the fact that you cannot park full time on the road, except now maybe you can because you can use the boulevard in the winter.

The worst I've seen in KW was a block just off Highland Rd. where three consecutive homes had used their entire front property for car storage, so each home had about four cars parked in front. Which to be fair, isn't much worse than some townhome developments which pack driveways to a similar density.

[nms]

For "most choked street for parked cars" I would nominate Lester St between University Ave and Seagram Drive in Waterloo (and likely also Lester St between Columbia St and University Ave). Pre-pandemic, every parking spot was used up most of the time, except for overnight. Depending on what was going on in Uptown Waterloo, especially around St. Patrick's Day or Homecoming, the streets to the west of King St between Central St and Bridgeport Rd could also become full of parked cars.

[tomh009]

Looking at it today, it sure doesn't look like a 2m width. The "last" bridge (closest to Victoria St) is either 1.8m or 2m wide, and the new bridge looks like it's half again as wide. Can't actually access it to measure it, though. 

Maybe it's wider, I'm guessing based on the images. It didn't look 3m but hard to tell for sure. FWIW 4m is the "correct" width for a 3 meter trail because with vertical walls there should be a 0.5m buffer.

I didn't have a measuring tape but I'd say it's 2.5m, or possibly 2.4m if they still do everything in Imperial measurements.

[danbrotherston]

Maybe it's wider, I'm guessing based on the images. It didn't look 3m but hard to tell for sure. FWIW 4m is the "correct" width for a 3 meter trail because with vertical walls there should be a 0.5m buffer.

I didn't have a measuring tape but I'd say it's 2.5m, or possibly 2.4m if they still do everything in Imperial measurements.

Yeah, I went across it also this weekend. It's definitely wider than I thought from a distance. Possibly it could be 3m, but I also lacked a measuring tape.

Since the parking restriction has been removed from David St. I will probably start cycling through the park as my route to drop my daughter at daycare, so I will probably use it on a regular basis now.

[dtkvictim]

Does anyone know what this concrete pad at Jubilee & Water is for? Saw the forms yesterday, and it was poured today.