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Awesome photos as always, Iain!
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Definite heart-in-throat moment for whoever owns 900 King, I'm sure. That thing ain't a lightweight box!
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They evacuated the building beforehand  I saw some people coming out and talking to the white-hats, saying stuff like "...so THATS why you needed us out of there!"
It was neat seeing them sign off on every lift. Every single person who touched the rigging had to sign off on it at a safety meeting beforehand.
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Or as some people would describe it. Standing around doing nothing. Most people probably have no idea what goes into making a project like this safe.
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Might those stop signs be fore GrandLinq workers who are in road vehicles which can fit onto rails? They might not know the area as well as locals, nor are safeties on place for them, if they needed to cross roadways while on the rails.
The paving near King and Victoria was a bit intense. Three floors up in Kaufman, halfway down the building, and the vibrations were very intense.
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(09-26-2016, 09:03 AM)Viewfromthe42 Wrote: Might those stop signs be fore GrandLinq workers who are in road vehicles which can fit onto rails? They might not know the area as well as locals, nor are safeties on place for them, if they needed to cross roadways while on the rails.
The paving near King and Victoria was a bit intense. Three floors up in Kaufman, halfway down the building, and the vibrations were very intense.
Wait until the trains start passing by! 
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(09-25-2016, 09:20 PM)Canard Wrote: Erb/Caroline. I have no problems with this configuration of crossing lanes - in fact, I prefer the pedestrian islands, both as someone on foot, and as a driver. If, for example, I want to cross as a pedestrian from the island over to Clay and Glass (to the left, here) - I just look to my right. I make eye contact with one driver, and we agree when it's my turn to cross, I give a little wave, and life's great. As a driver, I'm only having to look at two spots for people - on my left, and on my right, before proceeding. If I see someone, I wait. Way, way simpler than if you have to look in multiple places with people darting out in front of you everywhere.
I'm not thrilled by it, but I think I agree this is the best configuration. I would prefer that there was a direct crossing of Erb without having to cross to the island, but this would encourage turning traffic to stop on the tracks waiting for pedestrians. Also, your point about having to look only one place for traffic is a good one. Though this intersection is now complicated enough that we could borrow a trick or two from London:
![[Image: 52105275.jpg]](http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/52105275.jpg)
I hope to see some good signage reminding those channelized right turners to yield to people wanting to cross to the island, otherwise it's going to be some long waits for gaps in cars turning. I didn't have any problem making eye contact and crossing on Saturday, but it's still new and there was no traffic pressure.
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Old traffic lights being removed at Charles/Benton this morning.
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Erb/Caroline looks very nice now, but the fact that the channelized right-turn is only a single lane is a major screw-up. Two lanes should take the corner to avoid creating a bottleneck. There is a route all the way across the city and beyond consisting of Bridgeport and Erb which has at least two lanes in each direction, except for westbound at the corner of Erb and Caroline where it is constricted to a single lane. Not smart.
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(09-26-2016, 12:29 PM)ijmorlan Wrote: Erb/Caroline looks very nice now, but the fact that the channelized right-turn is only a single lane is a major screw-up. Two lanes should take the corner to avoid creating a bottleneck. There is a route all the way across the city and beyond consisting of Bridgeport and Erb which has at least two lanes in each direction, except for westbound at the corner of Erb and Caroline where it is constricted to a single lane. Not smart.
Well, nothing is stopping you from turning right from Caroline's through lane!
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It's actually quite smart. One of the biggest bottlenecks at Caroline and Erb is that when north/south traffic has a green light, you can be either south/northbound on Caroline and wanting to turn westbound onto Erb. The drivers from each are notorious for wide turns, meaning instead of a steady stream going into each lane from each direction, you have a situation where a driver turning NB-WB puts a scare into the driver trying to turn SB-WB, and they will hesitate, and it goes back and forth with hesitations from drivers both NB and SB on Caroline. SB drivers had to look south across erb for pedestrians, then south across erb for cars, then east across Caroline for pedestrians, and then to their right to the sidewalk for more pedestrians. Now, they only have to look left and right for pedestrians, creating a much easier information flow without overloading their observational responsibilities.
Time will tell, but as long as drivers aren't trying to force illegal wide turns into this situation, I think it will actually be much easier.
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A double right lane would require signalized operation. That means no right turns on red, possibly an extra phase in the mix, and stoppages for pedestrians crossing. Makes me wonder how many more vehicles it could reasonably get through here over one lane, and whether it would worsen the rest of the intersection's performance.
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I forgot to mention, this morning I followed a KW Glass truck with station canopy panels south down Albert, onto Bridgeport, then it turned right onto Erb. I was turning left, so I didn't see where it ended up, but my guess is the Willis Way stop.
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