ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[razzie13]

Anchor walls tiles are now up at Fairview Park station as well

[Canard]

Much late ... some early-morning photos from Tuesday:

Don't feel bad - I'm way behind, too!  Although that illuminated EQ3 anchor wall is really unique

1/1 - Monday, April 10, 2017

   
Progress at the King St. Grade Separation.

   
Progress at the King St. Grade Separation.

   
The stunning anchor wall is now up at Cedar/Kitchener Market! I think this is my favourite one so far. The ceramic tiles are so much more vibrant than the glass ones.

   
Tiles are up at Borden now, too! This was on Tuesday - by Thursday, it was complete, and boarded up.

   
It's hard to see, but there's now a glass window installed in that "opening" at the bottom of the anchor wall, here at University of Waterloo.

[Canard]

1/1 - Thursday, April 13, 2017

   
Another vibrant ceramic tile anchor wall - Conestoga, the Northern terminus of the line.

   
Waterloo Town Square station should be popping up soon; the anchor wall armature has been installed.

   
I missed seeing it by a few hours, but here's the solid blue Grand River Hospital anchor wall. They boarded it up earlier in the afternoon.

   
Almost there.

[Canard]

...and I'll put this in its own post, for discussion purposes:

   

What are our thoughts on this?

On Tuesday, I actually saw at one point no less than 6 people taking a stroll through here, under the Grade Separation - still very much a closed, active construction site with various hazards.

It's never officially been said that it's "open", so I'm curious what others are thinking, here. I've reached out to GrandLinq for an official response. As someone who strictly abides by the rules, I can't bring myself to go through just yet, as much as I would like to.

[panamaniac]

Randoms:  When is the King St underpass expected to re-open (officially)?

When are the art installations expected to be in place?  Some of them will be built at/into the station and I imagine they'll take a bit of time.

The Conestoga anchor wall is the first one that I don't like.  In the above photo, at least, the colours strike me as a bit "cheap" looking.

[plam]

What are our thoughts on this?

On Tuesday, I actually saw at one point no less than 6 people taking a stroll through here, under the Grade Separation - still very much a closed, active construction site with various hazards.

It's never officially been said that it's "open", so I'm curious what others are thinking, here.  I've reached out to GrandLinq for an official response.  As someone who strictly abides by the rules, I can't bring myself to go through just yet, as much as I would like to.

I've thought about it (because the detour is annoying) but I haven't actually gone through yet; right now, it does feel like a bit more of a construction site than something that one should be going through.

[Canard]

Randoms:  When is the King St underpass expected to re-open (officially)?

When the asphalt plants re-open for the year and they can pave. They're doing everything to get the whole area as complete as possible, so that paving is the only thing left to do as soon as they reopen.

When are the art installations expected to be in place?  Some of them will be built at/into the station and I imagine they'll take a bit of time.

Most of them will be in place by the time the system opens in early 2018. I would expect most of the installation will begin sometime in the fall.

I've reached out to GrandLinq for an official response.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/Canardiain">@Canardiain</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/Grandlinq">@Grandlinq</a> Hi Iain. This area is still closed. Thanks for the heads-up.</p>&mdash; ION (@rideIONrt) <a href="https://twitter.com/rideIONrt/status/852872375557398529">April 14, 2017</a></blockquote>

[Section ThirtyOne]

The Conestoga anchor wall is the first one that I don't like.  In the above photo, at least, the colours strike me as a bit "cheap" looking.

It is much better in person, I think you might change your mind. The vibrant colours tie the station in with the bright colours on the facade of the mall.

Not sure if that is why those colours were chosen, but it works!

[kps]

Randoms:  When is the King St underpass expected to re-open (officially)?

The latest word is that paving will be complete in late July. Work on sidewalks will start in a week or two. I don't know whether the sidewalks will be opened when they're done; personally, I wouldn't hold my breath.

[tomh009]

Much late ... some early-morning photos from Tuesday:

So what are these things for?

[Canard]

Pre-run conduits for running wires through.

[KevinL]

Randoms:  When is the King St underpass expected to re-open (officially)?

The latest word is that paving will be complete in late July. Work on sidewalks will start in a week or two. I don't know whether the sidewalks will be opened when they're done; personally, I wouldn't hold my breath.

Don't be surprised if people make full use of the sidewalks as soon as they are in, especially evenings/weekends with no workers around.

[ijmorlan]

The latest word is that paving will be complete in late July. Work on sidewalks will start in a week or two. I don't know whether the sidewalks will be opened when they're done; personally, I wouldn't hold my breath.

Don't be surprised if people make full use of the sidewalks as soon as they are in, especially evenings/weekends with no workers around.

Well, once the sidewalks are in there is no good reason for people not to go through, assuming there aren’t construction crews around. Once they’re walking on the final surface intended for people to walk on, who cares what is still happening in the middle of the street? Even if there is a big hole beside the sidewalk, that’s not really any more dangerous than the traffic that will be rushing through once the project is done.

One thing I’ve noticed we’re not very good at is opening crucial portions of a site while work continues on the rest of the site. If the site is a blob that can be walked around, this doesn’t matter, but if the site is blocking an important traffic route, it can significantly reduce the impact of the construction during a sometimes-lengthy period during which the overall project is nearly done, or at least looks nearly done, but there is still a lot of work to do before it really is completely done.

[dunkalunk]

Aside from not going with the approved anchor wall designs, does anyone else find it bothersome that they didn't even bother to vertically centre-justify Conestoga station text on a set of tiles? That g just looks awkward as hell.

[Canard]

No, I like it in the position chosen. I just wish it could be justified fully left or right; that always looks better. I hate centred things in general from a design standpoint.

Keep in mind there is a GRT and ion logo yet to go on, above the text.