ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[GtwoK]

Were they doing the Northbound curbs now, or still just working away at the Southbound ones? Will need to check that out on my way home tonight.

[Section ThirtyOne]

Were they doing the Northbound curbs now, or still just working away at the Southbound ones? Will need to check that out on my way home tonight.

Southbound.

Beware the potholes if they haven't been fixed!

[KevinL]

Speaking of poured curbs, lots of that work finished today at Charles/Benton. Looking nice.

[taylortbb]

Also, this is peculiar: A lane closure on Charles between Water and Gaukel was just posted, despite it already being closed to traffic completely. The lane closure is supposed to last from tomorrow until next Friday, but is overnight from 7pm til 7am every day. What could this be for? Why at night? All I can think is maybe to accommodate installation of track, without compromising access to the parking garages?

When I walked past Charles last night there was a crew taking down the Manulife Financial sign from the Manulife overpass over Charles St, and they had the road partially blocked off to do so. Maybe it's Manulife and completely unrelated to LRT construction? Doing it now when the road is closed anyways, but for legal reasons it still needs to be registered with the city/region.

[Canard]

Suspect it has to do with OCS.

[GtwoK]

The new KCI steps are going to look really nice, I can already tell from the way it's been graded.

Today, King ST NB in front of GRH had been rerouted to be in the track's ROW while they made some final underground connections where the normal NB ROW would be. KW Hydro's work was supposed to last until around now, so they may be prepping for the NB curbs on King St finally.

Also, this is peculiar: A lane closure on Charles between Water and Gaukel was just posted, despite it already being closed to traffic completely. The lane closure is supposed to last from tomorrow until next Friday, but is overnight from 7pm til 7am every day. What could this be for? Why at night? All I can think is maybe to accommodate installation of track, without compromising access to the parking garages?

When I walked past Charles last night there was a crew taking down the Manulife Financial sign from the Manulife overpass over Charles St, and they had the road partially blocked off to do so. Maybe it's Manulife and completely unrelated to LRT construction? Doing it now when the road is closed anyways, but for legal reasons it still needs to be registered with the city/region.

Ah, you know what? You're probably right. I mistakenly read the category as Ion Construction, but it's actually "other".

[Canard]

Now we can see that the ground at Charles/Benton is at the right height for paving. Curbs started going in yesterday.

[Canard]

.....which now has me really wondering something. I had always assumed here that the track would "dip" or the road surface would come up to meet it... So that vehicles wound be still alowed to move straight through on either Charles or Benton. But looking at the curb that was poured around be OCS pole foundation, the top of that curb is flush with the top of the track, which suggests that the road will be the height of the curb below that - in other words, that vehicles will not be driving on top of the embedded track.

Does anyone know if that's the case? Does that mean that Charles South is through, Benton West is through, but Charles North is forced onto Benton/Frederick East and Benton North has to turn West onto Charles?

[Viewfromthe42]

I'm fairly certain that Charles/Benton is a full access intersection, with traffic able to move in all ways through it. It's spots elsewhere that you'll find right-in/right-out movement restrictions.

[Canard]

Agreed, that's what I thought to - but that can't work with the way the curbs are in the photos above. The road surface will be at the bottom of the curb, which implies traffic is not permitted to drive across any of the embedded track through this intersection.

[timio]

Caroline/William is slated to close next week until December 18 for track installation.

Queen and Duke is slated to close today for 6 weeks.

[panamaniac]

Caroline/William is slated to close next week until December 18 for track installation.

Queen and Duke is slated to close today for 6 weeks.

Closing Queen and Duke before Charles and Benton has re-opened?  That is not going to be pretty.....

[Viewfromthe42]

Agreed, that's what I thought to - but that can't work with the way the curbs are in the photos above.  The road surface will be at the bottom of the curb, which implies traffic is not permitted to drive across any of the embedded track through this intersection.

My money would be on either an excessively-sloped asphalt, or on some part of this being at the wrong level. While the curbs would be easier to raise, the properties they line might be difficult to adjust to. If they have to lower the concrete track sections...whoa nelly.

[GtwoK]

Thankfully, there will only be 1 week where the two closures overlap.

Anyone in the area should maybe stop by Charles / Ontario today. After countless closure extensions, which are supposed to be ending as of tomorrow, I suspect curbs will be going in today.

[Canard]

You're probably right! I talked to a Steed & Evans lead last night and he said they're just going nuts with laying curb right now. Said they can't keep enough good people hired; asked me in the spot if I wanted a job!