ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[jamincan]

I wonder if provisions were made to install conduit for power lines when they dig things up. I sure hope so.

[BuildingScout]

Yeah, I wish there was more of an impetus to get wires underground wherever possible. In my opinion, they're the worst blight on an urban landscape from an infrastructure standpoint.

I was driving somewhere in town and I noticed that suddenly the neighbourhood looked a lot nicer. I decided to pay attention the next time I drove past . Was it the yards? Perhaps the houses? Dimensions of the streets? Nope, it was buried hydro lines, given the street a much cleaner look.

[timc]

I for one don't care about overhead wires, and I don't think existing wires should be buried without a good reason. Needing to make room for a sidewalk on Caroline seems like a good reason. If this is needed, why didn't it go into the original project plan? Change orders are expensive.

[MidTowner]

I think we should be taking the opportunity to bury hydro lines whenever the opportunity presents itself, and definitely when important streets are reconstructed. It’s true that it’s very costly so obviously can’t be done absolutely everywhere, but I think it’s good practice in urban areas. It’s aesthetically a lot more pleasing, and allows for more and bigger street trees.

[mpd618]

I think we should be taking the opportunity to bury hydro lines whenever the opportunity presents itself, and definitely when important streets are reconstructed. It’s true that it’s very costly so obviously can’t be done absolutely everywhere, but I think it’s good practice in urban areas. It’s aesthetically a lot more pleasing, and allows for more and bigger street trees.

My understanding is that burying the wires replaces an overground constraint for trees with an underground one, and it's not clear that it's a win. Is it possible/easy to place the wires in a way that it wouldn't conflict with street tree planting?

[eizenstriet]

At the same time as this Caroline hydro burial initiative arises, there has been a huge and hustled initiative by Waterloo North Hydro (and its majority owner, the City of Waterloo) to replace existing above-ground infrastructure in the Uptown residential neighbourhoods with new and even higher above-ground infrastructure.

The tree canopy on the “hydro side” of the street will be further brutalized in those areas, but what people don’t realize is that when the present old growth canopy dies (which it is widely doing from natural old age alone), present hydro regulations / guidelines do not favour replacement trees of a canopy nature. So those “leafy” neighbourhoods in the fullness of time are going to look a lot different. Sad loss to the City, not only to the immediate residents, but to the office workers who like to stroll there at lunch, and to anyone who treasures a green city.

Nice to know that new development on Caroline will have a clean look, with taxpayers on the “above-ground” streets contributing to the funding. In time, maybe there will even be canopy trees on Caroline, so people can enjoy a stroll there instead.

[zanate]

I for one don't care about overhead wires, and I don't think existing wires should be buried without a good reason. Needing to make room for a sidewalk on Caroline seems like a good reason. If this is needed, why didn't it go into the original project plan? Change orders are expensive.

Two quotes from the report:

In many locations along the LRT, burial of the hydro system is required to achieve adequate separation from existing buildings and/or other overhead electrical services; burial in these locations is the responsibility of the Region of Waterloo. For the LRT Uptown segments where the burial of the hydro system is not an LRT requirement, there is an opportunity for the City to enter an agreement with Waterloo North Hydro for a cost-effective solution.

In conjunction with LRT, the City’s share of the cost is estimated to be $1,088,000 to bury the hydro system and install decorative streetlights on Caroline Street from Allen Street to Erb Street. If the City were to initiate the burial of hydro and install decorative streetlights on this same stretch of road as a stand-alone project, the costs would be approximately $2,800,000 to $3,472,000 (based on preliminary estimates from Waterloo North Hydro). In conjunction with LRT, the City’s cost is estimated to be $1,088,000.

So in summary: burial is not required, even if it's desirable. So it's not part of the project. However, if the city wants, the burial can still be achieved for about 1/3 of the usual cost, so I don't thing there's a big penalty for discussing it now.

There's plenty of things that the LRT project could have had built into it, like full hydro burial along the route, catenary-free operation, or greenways. The approach to the project included a lot of "value engineering" back in the heady days of 2009-2011, where staff looked for ways to bring the costs of the project down. So you strip out the optional extras and fight hard against scope creep.

While there's things I would have liked to have seen as part of this project, I think this was the right decision here. I've mentioned that before: this project came pretty close to not happening a number of times, and scope management to control costs is a big reason (in my opinion) why it has survived.

Maybe if ION and intensification helps build a better sense of city and civic pride, we might see future projects aim higher. That's a big difference between here, and (say) Ottawa, and that difference is reflected in our respective LRT projects.

[MidTowner]

My understanding is that burying the wires replaces an overground constraint for trees with an underground one, and it's not clear that it's a win. Is it possible/easy to place the wires in a way that it wouldn't conflict with street tree planting?

I don’t think the impediments to trees of underground wires are nearly as serious as those of overhead wires. Obviously a tree can’t be planted directly over underground utilities, but I think they can coexist at very close proximity. If a repair needs to be made, that could damage a tree, but as far as I know very large trees with extensive root systems can be planted on streets with underground wires without any more worry than we would give to the existence of things like water mains- which is to say, some, but nowhere near the constraints placed by overhead wires.

[SammyOES]

I don't have a study but I think there's a pretty big benefit with buried power lines in storms as well. Since moving to an area with buried power lines we've had almost no power outages. And the ones we've had have been widespread outages that get fixed relatively quickly.

[MidTowner]

That’s the primary benefit, really: lower maintenance costs for the utility because of less frequent damage and outages.

[nms]

Unless you happen to be in an area that is susceptible to flooding. If I recall within one calendar year the Toronto utility was lambasted for having overhead wires that were affected by falling trees in the winter, and then six months later it was lambasted for putting utilities underground where they got flooded out.

[panamaniac]

So the Region's community services committee has approved $385,000 for seven art installations at ION stations. That's $385,000 for all seven, not $385,000 each. One wonders why they even bother. I fear the eventual winning installations will either junk up the stations or be too insignificant to be noticed. Sigh of disappointment.

http://www.therecord.com/news-story/6482...n-funding/

[LesPio]

So the Region's community services committee has approved $385,000 for seven art installations at ION stations.  That's $385,000 for all seven, not $385,000 each.  One wonders why they even bother.  I fear the eventual winning installations will either junk up the stations or be too insignificant to be noticed.  Sigh of disappointment.  

http://www.therecord.com/news-story/6482...n-funding/

They could have saved money and used the Prime Minister statues.

[MidTowner]

So the Region's community services committee has approved $385,000 for seven art installations at ION stations. That's $385,000 for all seven, not $385,000 each. One wonders why they even bother. I fear the eventual winning installations will either junk up the stations or be too insignificant to be noticed. Sigh of disappointment.

http://www.therecord.com/news-story/6482...n-funding/

I think I'm missing something. $50,000+ seems like enough for a nice mural or sculpture. How much should "art installations" cost without being "junk"?

I would have had the opposite reaction had it been $385,000 EACH. How can you spend a third of a million dollars on a piece of art that fits inside a street car station?

[Pheidippides]

Walking through Uptown today and seeing how the old infrastructure is so imbedded and nearby the corduroy road it makes you wonder how other road work has missed finding it over the course of the many rebuilds of King St over the years.

Perhaps the laws weren't as clear, or enforced, as to what needed to be investigated and/or preserved.