ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[MidTowner]

Is 18 months the estimate?

[Spokes]

Faster? Weber St. seemed like it went really, really fast, given the scope of work involved. I imagine King would take a little longer. Although for King, they won't have to make a bypass road like they did for Weber.

Weber st did seem really fast, but like you said, with no bypass road, should it not take less time?

[Markster]

I believe the King St overpass is a longer span. The maximum length they can build without a central support.

The main reason for the lack of a bypass road, is that the site is quite constrained on two corners. They can't conveniently knock down the Breithaupt Block or School of Pharmacy to build a bypass. In the case of Weber, the bypass road construction/destruction only looked to add a month or so to the schedule. Efforts for it were largely parallelizable with the underpass work itself.

[Canard]

Latest ion update also mentions the ramps to/from 85 at Northfield will be closed for 18 months as well starting on June 8 - wow!  I didn't think any work was starting on Northfield until next year.

[timio]

Perhaps they moved it up to take place of the work Uptown?

[Canard]

I can't imagine that would be quick to do, from a project management standpoint. Scheduling of equipment, resources, etc.

[The85]

If I can recall too, the grade separation of Hespeler Road over the tracks at the Delta intersection went fairly quickly.

[Canard]

Bearanger is back open to traffic now.

Substation work at Clay and Glass:
   

Alignment between Bearanger and McCormic Arena:
   

Completed crossing at Bearanger:
   

Temporary Old/New rail fish plate interface:
   

Current end of the line for the new track:
   

[Canard]

The main hall at the OMSF is now absolutely massive, and has a roof on part of it:
   

   

Concrete ties have now gone down awaiting the first long run of track!
   

   

[rangersfan]

Canard great pictures, I was going to post some similar ones that I took yesterday of the maintenance building but yours sums up the situation well.

I noticed that the OMSF site has preparations complete for a couple of additional buildings or structures

[Square]

Canard : I thought the substation was going to be located closer to the pedestrian/rail bridges closer to waterloo park? Did they move it?

[Canard]

There's a second pad there as well. I tried to get a photo, but it didn't turn out very well.

[KevinL]

A lot of heavy work in the rail corridor between Ottawa and the expressway over the last couple days - a lot of grading makes for a clear open vista.

[Square]

There's a second pad there as well. I tried to get a photo, but it didn't turn out very well.

Thank you.

[ijmorlan]

There's a second pad there as well. I tried to get a photo, but it didn't turn out very well.

Last I heard, the substation will now be just on the other side of the Laurel Creek crossing. In recent days I have seen a space being graded, presumably for the substation. I expect it will eventually almost disappear into the forest. This is a change from the location beside Father David Bauer Dr.

I believe the concrete pad beside CCGG is the top of the Laurel Creek structure. Apparently it requires reinforcing, which explains the work done. I’m unclear on why reinforcement is necessary, since heavy rail has been crossing it for decades. Maybe it is getting worn out. The Laurel Creek structure is also currently exposed crossing Caroline St. where, in addition to the reinforcements that I believe are also needed there, significant changes to the way the storm sewer works are also being made.