Grand River Transit

[neonjoe]

Well there are certainly cases where the perfect is the enemy of the good it if turns out that nothing at all happens. We got something for stage 1, if it had been proposed to be the optimal solution we may have nothing at all.

[tomh009]

I don't know if replacing the Freeport bridge is desirable. It is a heritage bridge, "widely recognized as the most important bridge in the Region" (https://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg...px?id=8068).

That’s really interesting, I didn’t know it was considered a heritage feature. I’ve always just viewed it as a little sketchy since it has been visually deteriorating since I moved to the region myself. It looks like the bridge will be celebrating its 100th birthday next year, too. 

I’m interested to see what the expected lifespan is after they’ve finished rehabilitating it. If/when this bridge does need to be replaced, it’s simple design should be pretty replicable. It would look even nicer with some rail tracks running on it 😎

The Bridgeport Bridge is already a replica of the Freeport Bridge, built about 10 years later. 🙂

[the_conestoga_guy]

Putting the tracks on the bridge is a bad idea for many reasons. They've already spent a ton of money on the plans so far, I'd hate to see them ignite even more of our tax dollars. They would have to re-engineer the plans already made. I imagine it would also require expropriating a bunch of property in order to do that. It would result in a lot more work, likely slower speeds and mixing with traffic. The plan they have now - to go above Fairway Road, run parallel to Highway 8, down Preston Heights over the Speed River and onward makes the most sense. It'll be costly - over 4 billion - but it will be one of the fastest parts of the LRT system due to it having its own elevated track and right of way beside the highway (at least until Preston Station where it'll unfortunately have to operate in and as vehicular traffic). Going down King Street and over the bridge would be slow due to the tight turns it'd need to make and then the gradients along the Grand River Valley.

Let's try to not cheap out on it again...

Just to clarify, I meant putting separated tracks on a replacement bridge. I recognize that it would be an awful idea for a million reasons to plop tracks onto the existing bridge. 

This is all pie-in-the-sky anyway. I just want to plant to idea into the brains of whatever Region officials are lurking this forum

[danbrotherston]

Putting the tracks on the bridge is a bad idea for many reasons. They've already spent a ton of money on the plans so far, I'd hate to see them ignite even more of our tax dollars. They would have to re-engineer the plans already made. I imagine it would also require expropriating a bunch of property in order to do that. It would result in a lot more work, likely slower speeds and mixing with traffic. The plan they have now - to go above Fairway Road, run parallel to Highway 8, down Preston Heights over the Speed River and onward makes the most sense. It'll be costly - over 4 billion - but it will be one of the fastest parts of the LRT system due to it having its own elevated track and right of way beside the highway (at least until Preston Station where it'll unfortunately have to operate in and as vehicular traffic). Going down King Street and over the bridge would be slow due to the tight turns it'd need to make and then the gradients along the Grand River Valley.

Let's try to not cheap out on it again...

Just to clarify, I meant putting separated tracks on a replacement bridge. I recognize that it would be an awful idea for a million reasons to plop tracks onto the existing bridge. 

This is all pie-in-the-sky anyway. I just want to plant to idea into the brains of whatever Region officials are lurking this forum

I believe at one point, they considered converting the existing bridge into a cycling bridge and building a new combined road/LRT bridge.

[nms]

It has a length of 160 meters, with seven spans and six piers. Two lanes of cars can cross the bridge and the 6 foot wide sidewalk is a unique feature found on this bowstring arch bridge.

Despite the 6-foot sidewalk being included in 1925, it appears that there is no pedestrian path to the south of this bridge.