ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[KevinL]

Benton and Charles is thoroughly closed.





With Ontario still torn up and Water also shut, this leaves only Gaukel and Queen as viable crossing points for much of downtown.

[GtwoK]

Unless things have changed, gaukel isn't even a crossing point atm. There's no access to Charles from the Joseph St side of gaukel.

Side note: I know they're adding another track to Park and moving the existing one slightly; are they building concrete road crossings here like they are for Ion? What's with the crossings anyway (ie, why are they necessary / why aren't they upgrading all rail crossings in the region to use them / etc)

[Canard]

The crossing types used for ion are for concrete ties. They wouldn't work with wooden ties, so Park's crossings will likely simply be the asphalt style we see everywhere else. Standard railway tech.

The concrete style we're seeing for ion uses wider ties in the crossing area, and then concrete slabs are set on top of the extensions on rubber pads. The concrete slabs can be lifted off easily if required via hook points recessed into the pads.

The work at Park is to permit GO access to their layover facility from the "other side", since the elevation of the main line at King is being raised.

I really wonder what the timing on the King underpass work will be actually. Maybe there will be one insane weekend push to get the entire stretch raised/realigned so GO can run their next Monday train? That seems like a paramount undertaking.

[GtwoK]

I highly doubt that would be the case, but I'm no engineer. What was the timing like on the Weber underpass? I imagine it would be similar, albeit, the king in does have the addition of needing Ion tracks underneath.

[Canard]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">More rail segments being unloaded on Borden near Courtland for <a href="https://twitter.com/rideIONrt">@rideIONrt</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wrLRT?src=hash">#wrLRT</a> ! <a href="https://twitter.com/WRConnected">@WRConnected</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GrandLinq?src=hash">#GrandLinq</a> <a href="http://t.co/aQOv6Mc0zL">pic.twitter.com/aQOv6Mc0zL</a></p>&mdash; Iain (@Canardiain) <a href="https://twitter.com/Canardiain/status/635504133991231488">August 23, 2015</a></blockquote>

Spoke with another one of the GrandLinq guys today; the Holland Mobile Welder will move over from Charles to Borden within the week, to start welding together the latest batch of rails for the whole Borden stretch. In about 6 weeks, we'll see track in the ground between Courtland and the CN Spur!

[GtwoK]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">More rail segments being unloaded on Borden near Courtland for <a href="https://twitter.com/rideIONrt">@rideIONrt</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wrLRT?src=hash">#wrLRT</a> ! <a href="https://twitter.com/WRConnected">@WRConnected</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GrandLinq?src=hash">#GrandLinq</a> <a href="http://t.co/aQOv6Mc0zL">pic.twitter.com/aQOv6Mc0zL</a></p>&mdash; Iain (@Canardiain) <a href="https://twitter.com/Canardiain/status/635504133991231488">August 23, 2015</a></blockquote>

Spoke with another one of the GrandLinq guys today; the Holland Mobile Welder will move over from Charles to Borden within the week, to start welding together the latest batch of rails for the whole Borden stretch.  In about 6 weeks, we'll see track in the ground between Courtland and the CN Spur!

Awesome news! When I was walking Borden the other day, I noted that the CN Spur has a significantly higher grade than Borden — will they be lowering this entire spur to account for that? Obviously the aren't raising Borden, and the angle would be much too steep for track at the moment:

[panamaniac]

I think the railway tracks are raised because that area is part of the Schneider Creek floodplain.

[Canard]

Sheet 21 from the Region's Functional Design Plans seem to suggest that the single existing freight track will be relocated, and the single Southbound LRT track will run parallel with it, until the Mill/Ottawa intersection. If that's the case, it's very likely that the Southbound LRT track will simply very gradually change elevation until it's flush with the existing freight line.

[KevinL]

Seems everyone's visiting Borden lately - I stopped by myself this morning, hiking from Mill to Charles.

On the left, you can see a portion of the Howald Window & Door structure has had to be reworked; on the right, the end of Grenville Avenue has lost the trees screening the tracks:


The portion between Courtland and Charles is interesting. South of Nyberg, the full width of the passage for road and rail has been cleared, and footings for catpoles are going in:


North of the creek, however, it seems far less worked. For example, this property's fence, and likely its tree, will have to go; I'm surprised they're still intact:

[ijmorlan]

Sheet 21 from the Region's Functional Design Plans seem to suggest that the single existing freight track will be relocated, and the single Southbound LRT track will run parallel with it, until the Mill/Ottawa intersection.  If that's the case, it's very likely that the Southbound LRT track will simply very gradually change elevation until it's flush with the existing freight line.

And indeed drawing C-PR-034 shows the track rising on a 1.55% grade from approximately elevation 321 to a peak of almost 326, or a 5m rise. The northbound profiles are all included on the plan drawings, but the southbound profiles are on a separate set of drawings.

[TMKM94]

Some of the work on Caroline.

Is that section of Caroline going to be turned into a one way street? the new curbs seem to be too close together for it to remain a two way.

[GtwoK]

Wow, the portion of Borden from Nyberg to Courtland has progressed even more so since I was there a few days ago, I'm impressed. Figured it would be moving a lot more slowly than that! The Seagram crossing should be done this week, yes? Should take a trip up there soon and check out it / the University crossing.

Is that section of Caroline going to be turned into a one way street? the new curbs seem to be too close together for it to remain a two way.

Photos / plans of the same segment. Seems to still be two-way! That being said, the lane widths are thinner than is standard.

[Canard]

Remember that the tracks are on the right in the photo I took. Cars are already using the road on the left in two directions.

[zanate]

Photos / plans of the same segment. Seems to still be two-way! That being said, the lane widths are thinner than is standard.

Are you talking about the marked 3.35m lane width on Caroline in the diagram? We're seeing a lot of regional road projects working with this as a new standard lane width. Though there's often extra room from somewhere else (bike lanes, parking, a wider curb lane on a 4-lane road etc.) and in Caroline's example, there will definitely not be.

[GtwoK]

Photos / plans of the same segment. Seems to still be two-way! That being said, the lane widths are thinner than is standard.

Are you talking about the marked 3.35m lane width on Caroline in the diagram? We're seeing a lot of regional road projects working with this as a new standard lane width. Though there's often extra room from somewhere else (bike lanes, parking, a wider curb lane on a 4-lane road etc.) and in Caroline's example, there will definitely not be.

Had no idea that was standard now, I thought all lane widths were 3.5m, and that 3.35 was the exception rather than the rule.