ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Viewfromthe42]

The NB track across Victoria is fully embedded. With all the rails laying on King between Francis and Victoria, I wonder when an opening would occur, as in addition to the obvious track embedding and paving, the large stock of rails will need to move to the North side of Victoria beforehand.

[Canard]

Where are you guys finding best access to take photos and get these updates?

I sometimes pop up along King next to the Kaufman lofts, or go into the lot at Google at Charles/Victoria, but I'd love to get closer if there's a "legal" area to do so.

[Markster]

I've found the end of the sidewalk on King St next to Kaufman to have the best view.
It also has the least in terms of barriers, so determining where the construction zone begins is an exercise left to the reader.

This morning, there were crews working right at the end of that access point, so I didn't want to bother them, but I took some other photos from the 'sidewalk' around 1 Victoria, and from the far side of Kaufman on Victoria St.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Tracks run through King/Victoria <a href="https://t.co/FN5rTZM55Y">pic.twitter.com/FN5rTZM55Y</a></p>&mdash; Mark Jackson-Brown (@Markster3000) <a href="https://twitter.com/Markster3000/status/776063717976969216">September 14, 2016</a></blockquote>

This is all ground level, of course, which isn't really the best.

[Canard]

Kitchener Glass just finished installing all the canopy roof sections at the Laurier/Waterloo Park station. They were loading their SkyJack units back onto trucks to take them away.

[Pheidippides]

The willis stop has most of the anchor wall boxed in with plywood, I suspect to protect it until closer to when needed.

[Canard]

Sad to hear that, Pheidippides, but I suppose it's for the best.

New PIC about station area planing:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Midtown &amp; Rockway <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wrLRT?src=hash">#wrLRT</a> transit stops: two public information meetings Sept 29, 6:45 pm <a href="https://t.co/MNdQ249WhG">https://t.co/MNdQ249WhG</a></p>&mdash; SPCKW (@SPCofKW) <a href="https://twitter.com/SPCofKW/status/776144430231347201">September 14, 2016</a></blockquote>

[JoeKW]

Canard pid='26615' dateline='1473856743']Where are you guys finding best access to take photos and get these updates?

I sometimes pop up along King next to the Kaufman lofts, or go into the lot at Google at Charles/Victoria, but I'd love to get closer if there's a "legal" area to do so.

I like the view from my office at 305 King.

   

[Pheidippides]

Last patches of dirt on king from William to union were getting a final regrade and roll/compaction this afternoon; would not be surprised if they are paved in the next day or two.

The rideion.ca traffic updates list is currently showing upcoming closures at king at William closing on or about September 21 until late November and Bearinger closing at the tracks closing September 20 for about one week.

[chutten]

The rideion.ca traffic updates list is currently showing upcoming closures at king at William closing on or about September 21 until late November and Bearinger closing at the tracks closing September 20 for about one week.

What could they be doing at Bearinger that needs a week's closure at the tracks?

[GtwoK]

I walked up and down Charles multiple times a week every week last summer, but haven't had the opportunity to do that this year. Just walked around the Market Station area and wow, I'm very impressed. It's so great seeing what this area will look like in an essentially finished state, now with the middle concrete done and the grass in the boulevards. It's not anywhere near as drab as I was expecting with all that concrete. It's actually really pretty!

Also quite impressed by the Benton / Charles intersection. All the poles and final lights are all up (though not yet on), and it looks very organized and not like the complete chaos I was expecting it to! 

The rideion.ca traffic updates list is currently showing upcoming closures at king at William closing on or about September 21 until late November and Bearinger closing at the tracks closing September 20 for about one week.

What could they be doing at Bearinger that needs a week's closure at the tracks?

Probably the same thing that required week-long closures at Columbia and at Seagram. Whatever that may be.

[Coke6pk]

The rideion.ca traffic updates list is currently showing upcoming closures at king at William closing on or about September 21 until late November and Bearinger closing at the tracks closing September 20 for about one week.

What could they be doing at Bearinger that needs a week's closure at the tracks?

The On-Track Safety guy says he can't tell us!

Coke

[Canard]

I suspect more tamping - and if that's the case, that's kind of scary that it keeps shifting and needing constant tweaking. I wonder if it's just a burn-in thing, until the temperature and rail positions stabilize over a full season of temperature swings.

[GtwoK]

It seems like they haven't gone back to any intersection more than once after "completing" it. There was probably the initial tamping, and then the expectation that it might shift a bit after the first few months of use (freight). Now they're probably doing the final tamping. Like when they do the second coat of asphalt one a newly paved road after a year.

[KevinL]

A few more pieces got delivered to the Cameron crossover, including these flange-intersection bits (don't know the proper name, sorry).

[GtwoK]

Some pictures to accompany my post earlier!

King / Vic looking great! I figure they'll probably get this one completely  done before reopening - sidewalks and all.


Loving the graded slope next to where the Northbound station will go here. Catpole bases had also just been poured!


All the poles and lights in at Benton / Charles, just waiting to be turned on. Very neat looking. Will probably get a bit messier once catenary is strung. Nice to see the sidewalk on the corner with the church has finally been poured, as well!



Market Station area, very nice with all the grass in here. I can picture some nice, tall glass buildings going up here at some point in the future, on the corner.


One thing I noticed at Queen / Charles - the sidewalks are very tight here, on the Northwest side. They are a reduced width and radius, because of having to fit around the 2 older buildings here, PLUS, there's traffic poles (the permanent ones) sticking out. People walking can get by if walking single file, but there's not a chance a wheelchair or mobility scooter would fit. Not sure what could be done about this.