ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[BuildingScout]

For a project of this magnitude I'd say 30 million.

Do you happen to know how much was Kitchener's planned input into the project?

Relocation of public infrastructure is $60 million.

[Canard]

Point is, media are being stupid jerks just trying to get people angry. There are a billion other stories they could have run about the project but they pick and choose the ones that will evoke the strongest public reaction, wether it's positive, or (usually) negative. I seriously think they must teach this tactic in journalism school or something.

[zanate]

Well, whether it's taught in journalism school or editor school, it's definitely a major tool in their toolkit.

Kitchener deserves a bit of stick here, though. Their delay in committing to getting it done has pushed up the cost due to winter work premium on a larger project that cannot withstand the delay without incurring even greater costs.

I'm a little unhappy as a Kitchener citizen that this is costing more, but equally unhappy that dithering has made it even more painful.

[Canard]

Is there any proof that it's anyone's "fault" though? I'm under the impression this is just one of those things that's impossible to really schedule or coordinate accurately.

[zanate]

Basing my comments on this:

Kitchener, Region spar over LRT utility costs - The Record

In December 2014 the city and contractor agreed on maintaining the same pricing for reconstruction work, the staff report says.

But in March, the city claims, Aecon came back with significantly increased pricing but pulled back a bit after negotiation.

City staff still didn't like the deal and instead issued a tender for the work that closed in May.

The 10 bids that came back were way more money than expected which left the city with no choice but to go back to Aecon negotiations.

Galloway said the delay in awarding a contract contributes to increased costs for the city because winter construction is more costly than summer work.

"Through all this the work got delayed and it's got to be done before the spring so they got pushed into winter construction," he said. "If they had taken the original price, the work could have been underway and for the most part they would have avoided winter construction."

[Canard]

Ahh, good. I didn't see that. But I still don't see this as anyone's fault, really. Can you blame them for not just blindly issuing a PO for work that suddenly increased in price? Isn't it what "taxpayers" (I absolutely hate that term) are always complaining about?

[Viewfromthe42]

Ahh, good. I didn't see that. But I still don't see this as anyone's fault, really. Can you blame them for not just blindly issuing a PO for work that suddenly increased in price? Isn't it what "taxpayers" (I absolutely hate that term) are always complaining about?

In this case, they knew that the work, if tendered immediately, would see a small portion forced into the 62% price increased winter work timeframe. Knowing this, an RFQ that would take at least 1-3 months for a job like this would push 1-3 months into a 62% premium cost. Simple math would show that you would need to expect a *STEEP* discount to override that one basic point. And they should have known they wouldn't get it, I would argue. At the very least, it is *not* surprising that Kitchener has made it cost more.

[rangersfan]

Is this additional expense outside the cost of the LRT project?
if the City and Aecon met and set pricing in December 2014, was none of this written down and specified in a contract? If not this seems like a very silly way to get work done.

Whenever I hire a contractor I get multiple quotes, compare, select what I see as the best option. I pay for a portion of the agreed upon cost up front based on a contract, and then I pay the balance when the work is completed.

[GtwoK]

Today's update:

Northbound portion of King have been paved between Louisa and KCI. Major work going on at Wellington, so nothing there yet.

Curbs are in from Water to Ontario. The third curb (dividing the LRT from the auto traffic) is only running from Water to under Manulife right now. It's actually possible at this rate that this portion could be paved by the end of the week!

Curbs now completely in from Benton to Cedar. Southbound curbs are in from Cedar to Madison.

Catpoles have been poured from Madison to Stirling. Some trenching was going on there tonight, look alike they just need to finish that and the retaining wall, and the curbs can go in here too.

Borden has had its grade raised significantly. Its intersection at Charles is scheduled to close next Monday, for 2 weeks. Not sure what for. Was underground work done in the intersection already?

[panamaniac]

Borden has had its grade raised significantly because it's on a floodplain?

[GtwoK]

It's grade raised from the dug up state it was in, I mean. I'm sure it's the same grade as it was pre-construction.

[tomh009]

Is this additional expense outside the cost of the LRT project?
if the City and Aecon met and set pricing in December 2014, was none of this written down and specified in a contract? If not this seems like a very silly way to get work done.

Whenever I hire a contractor I get multiple quotes, compare, select what I see as the best option. I pay for a portion of the agreed upon cost up front based on a contract, and then I pay the balance when the work is completed.

Yes, but ... in this case the exact work to be done up front was not well known (because no one knew what was actually in the ground), so at least part of it would need to be time and materials rather than a fixed-price contract.

[Canard]

Borden/Charles is all torn up (as I'm sure you've seen) with traffic on Charles being forced to U-turn there, so if it's closing for 2 weeks my guess would be they're going to "clean it up".  I can't imagine they'd be placing track here starting in 4 days (since the track ends closer to Nyberg), so if it does open it'll have to close again once the track reaches that point.

I feel so dumb when I see people talk about the secondary crossroads because I have no idea where Ontario, Eby, Madison, etc. are.  I almost always have to have a Google Maps tab permanently open when reading this forum!


...and on that note, why is Charles marked as "planned" between Cedar and Stirling?

   

...oh, ha!  Double note!  Someone's been adding track - cool!  Is that like a "if enough people suggest it, Google adds it" kinda thing?  How do you "do" that? It's missing a bunch of track so it's not really super accurate...

   

[KevinL]

'Planned' is just shorthand for 'likely impassible due to construction'. They used the same thing for the Margaret Avenue bridge before it reopened, for example. Its main purpose is for new roads, but re-construction also falls under it.

[Markster]

You should check out Google Mapmaker.
It's the croudsourcing system for Google maps.

You can edit directly into the map. After a while, you get trusted, and your edits will go live without any other approval within a few hours.

"Planned" is what Google maps shows when a road is marked "under construction" (ie closed)
I believe that GwoK is the one doing most of the realignments. I've considered going in and straightening up some sections that aren't quite straight, but it's good enough for now!