ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Canard]

Do you have confirmation of this or are you just guessing? I am only asking because what may look like underground ducts for overhead wires is actually underground ducts for ion - communications, signalling, that sort of thing. I am not aware of any sharing of these duct banks for hydro or cable etc.

[GtwoK]

Do you have confirmation of this or are you just guessing? I am only asking because what may look like underground ducts for overhead wires is actually underground ducts for ion - communications, signalling, that sort of thing. I am not aware of any sharing of these duct banks for hydro or cable etc.

I mean, it would explain why sidewalks and curbs have been avoided everywhere that there is a hydro pole, despite them being laid on either side of the poles. It would also explain how they plan on dealing with catenary wires at spots that hydro wires are currently crossing them!

[Canard]

Don't get me wrong, it would be great if all the overhead utilities were going in ion's duct banks. I thought we discussed this like a year ago or so and everyone was all "no they're not burying anything, we love wood poles" etc.

[KevinL]

Do you have confirmation of this or are you just guessing? I am only asking because what may look like underground ducts for overhead wires is actually underground ducts for ion - communications, signalling, that sort of thing. I am not aware of any sharing of these duct banks for hydro or cable etc.

Just my understanding, nothing official as such. But as others have pointed out, these poles have always been clearly temporary.

[Canard]

I would be more inclined to believe that the catpoles will be outfitted with additional arms for supporting these utilities rather than everything going underground.

I really hope I'm wrong! Underground is obviously the best, and we'll actually end up with a net reduction in overhead clutter, even with the addition of all the massive OCS infra.

[KevinL]

The main point is, all this was already underground three years ago. To go from buried to ultimately aboveground, I doubt would be well-accepted.

[megabytephreak]

Curbs were going in on King between Allen and William today. Just waiting on the ones between the tracks and the road at this point. I wonder when they will "close" (not that you can actually get anywhere through it) the King/Allen intersection again to do the trackwork.

[panamaniac]

I can see the LRT construction on King Street in the distance.

That's the photo to show from aways when describing how close the start of Uptown is from the end of Downtown!

[tomh009]

Curbs were going in on King between Allen and William today. Just waiting on the ones between the tracks and the road at this point. I wonder when they will "close" (not that you can actually get anywhere through it) the King/Allen intersection again to do the trackwork.

I suspect that Granlinq has rented the concrete curbing machine (probably including the operator) so they are doing as many curbs as they can right now, to get the best use out of it.  Unlike last year, they are now laying down curbs before the track is in place.

[Smore]

how susceptible are the catenary wires to ice in the way that hydro lines would snap in ice storms?

[dunkalunk]

how susceptible are the catenary wires to ice in the way that hydro lines would snap in ice storms?

If you keep trains running to keep them clear of ice, I imagine not very susceptible.

[jamincan]

I recall hearing that that was what the ttc had to do at one point this winter.

[GtwoK]

A few photos from yesterday/ I hope you guys don't mind photos of minor day-to-day changes (it'd be a lot of effort to walk the entire Ion route every day), but if it starts to be an unwelcome barrage of photos, let me know and I'll lessen up a bit!

North side of Duke getting prepped for sidewalks between Water and Victoria. More sidwalks had also been added on the South side, along Francis and up to Bell Lane. I tried to take some photos of that, but the Grandlinq worker who was hanging around (waiting for it to dry?) told me I wasn't allowed to. Didn't feel like questioning why, so I moved on.



Duke / Francis may not be opening up so soon after all; a line has been cut through the pavement to mark the route tracks will fit into. So I guess that'll be happening soon.



A finished Charles St ( from Water to the tannery entrance, at least)!



What I assume to be traffic pole foundations being excavated at Charles / Gaukel. That may be what the cylindrical rebar was for at that intersection!



Charles at Queen, mid-paving

[isUsername]

I recall hearing that that was what the ttc had to do at one point this winter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_lF_cqx7vk

(From 2014)

[Markster]

A few photos from yesterday/ I hope you guys don't mind photos of minor day-to-day changes (it'd be a lot of effort to walk the entire Ion route every day), but if it starts to be an unwelcome barrage of photos, let me know and I'll lessen up a bit!

There is no such thing as "too many photos"!
All photos are welcome!