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ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit
Had a walk from Mill/Ottawa to downtown this morning, here's some observations.

First, the future Mill station. You can see the grade for the northbound track that will parallel Ottawa clearly here:

[Image: L9lQzLy.png]

In the opposite direction, the retaining wall for the (remaining) back yards has been completed:
[Image: N5iti4z.png]
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Then, along Borden, I spotted this in the middle of the embedded track. Any theories?

[Image: V6sWVyK.png]

I don't recall seeing a clear shot of the new Courtland crossing, so here's that for the record:
[Image: lmTa8pV.png]

Here's an unorthodox use of the right-of-way, but I guess it's not being used right now anyway...
[Image: P5vWQQz.png]

MTD's overhead conveyor has been dismantled! Here's what's left.
[Image: biF9BNv.png]
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(12-06-2015, 08:36 PM)KevinL Wrote: Here's an unorthodox use of the right-of-way, but I guess it's not being used right now anyway...
[Image: P5vWQQz.png]

It'll be interesting to see how the finished product looks. If it's like that, I'm curious how they'll enforce it when the time comes.
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Kitchener Market station platform slowly cures under the tarps. There's still more to be poured.

[Image: ZAwQqbN.png]

And in the opposite direction, you can clearly see the curb forms go up the hill.

[Image: Wtu13BS.png]
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(12-06-2015, 08:39 PM)timio Wrote: It'll be interesting to see how the finished product looks.  If it's like that, I'm curious how they'll enforce it when the time comes.

Will they have to enforce it? Frequent trains for 18+ hours of the day should make a statement of their own...
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(12-06-2015, 08:45 PM)KevinL Wrote: Will they have to enforce it? Frequent trains for 18+ hours of the day should make a statement of their own...
Idiots will be idiots. If there's a 7 minute buffer between trains, that's probably 5-6 minutes where there's no sight of anything using the ROW and lots of time for the space to fill up with said idiots.

It's like sidewalks. No one's using the sidewalk, so someone parks across it, thus blocking the pedestrian coming from around the corner, or even worse person using an assistive device that can't easily detour on the grass.
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[Image: 5705832600_d6d9b9e948_b.jpg]

In all honesty though, and as morbid as it sounds, as soon as I saw the tracks crossing all those driveways I realized it's only a matter of time before someone backing out of their driveway gets nailed by a train here (Borden), guarenteed.
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With the amount of work that's been done so far, I'm still surprised that the Mill / Ottawa are still hasn't been touched. Sure, there's the gas work on Ottawa, but that doesn't count for much when considering the grand scope of this intersection, being one of the major junction points. I'm just really looking forward to this area being somewhat revitalized!

The pdf of the technical drawings of the Ion route show Eby as no longer being a through street. But everytime I've driven through it this week, the new curbs stop before the intersection. Did plans change? Or will the curbs across the street be laid once Cedar reopens?
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My guess is it's a labour thing - only so many workers. Yeah it'd be nice to have twice as many folks out there working every possible point that they can, but they probably have to be a bit more selective on what crews are working what part, and when. I know what you mean, though - Ottawa feels like it's been closed forever between Mill and Courtland, with little to show for it. When I last walked down there it looked like all they had done was the temporary connections to people's houses and that's it. Guess they need to get Borden fully complete so traffic on Ottawa has somewhere to go once it closes.
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(12-05-2015, 03:30 PM)Canard Wrote: Happy to report that roof crews are finishing off the coating on the main hall or the OMSF (damage from the fire). Smile

[Image: attachment.php?aid=627]

Awesome shot!
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Thanks - I can't wait to shoot some video here, once trains start testing (in about a year!).
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They're currently paving Charles St from Gaukel to Ontario.


Attached Files Image(s)
   
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Just to Gaukel? I thought for sure they'd go toWater, especially with all the curbs in under Manulife now.
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The happiest day for Cafe Pyrus.
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(12-07-2015, 12:56 PM)GtwoK Wrote: Just to Gaukel? I thought for sure they'd go toWater, especially with all the curbs in under Manulife now.

I expect they'll make it to Water this week, maybe even today, but they weren't doing it at the time I took the photo.
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