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Finch Station bus platform resurfacing

MindMe

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They're resurfacing the pavement for the bus platform. They're going on their 3rd or 4th week. It's caused a nightmare for traffic heading west on Finch. Buses get all backed up because they can only use less than half of the station. What seems like it should have taken a capable road surfacing crew two days to complete has taken the TTC most of a month with no end in sight. This seems typical of all TTC construction projects. They seem very good at boarding up a highly useful door or passage way for 2 months with no apparent activity. Then they seem to do all the work in a week. If it was only going to take them a week, why do they board something up for 2 months?
 
The nightmare on Finch Ave has only been for the past two weeks when they started working on the southwest end of the platform. Don't forget the bus traffic problem is also attributed to by the wall reconstruction.

Nonetheless, it should have ended quite a bit ago - last time I saw the construction area, it's missing slabs at both end of the roadway.

What should be interesting is when they decide to resurface the east end of the platform, forcing all buses to occupy the west end of the platform by doing big loops.
 
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At least they've made room on the east side for buses to pass one another. That conga-line system a couple weeks ago was a mess.
 
I just noticed signs that say "early 2011". Boy. Great to see it takes the TTC 3 months to pave a drive way.
 
I just noticed signs that say "early 2011". Boy. Great to see it takes the private firm the TTC tendered to 3 months to pave a drive way.

Fixed that for you. Also, when I put in a new driveway it took over a year for it to be finished (settling issues or something). So, 3 months would be 9 months shorter than my situation.
 
LOL. The TTC still hasn't 'finished' the air vent upgrades. The SW corner of the station still has boarding up for no apparent reason. Something needs to be done about Finch. There are too many buses entering the station. The escalator construction is causing huge linesup to get down/up to/from the platform level in the morning/afternoon rushes. They at least need to extend the subway or force some York Region buses to go to Downsview instead, like the Bathurst bus (88).

They should extend the Yonge line up to Steeles at least to help uncongest Finch.
 
Has Rob Ford ever complained about the slowness of construction projects on the TTC? If so, this could be a good opportunity to show he ain't all just talk...

...I ain't holding my breath though.
Given that the bids are awarded to the lowest bidder; surely requiring a quicker schedule would only increase costs.

This was the bizarre part of Rossi's promises about Gardiner construction. Sure there are ways you could do construction with less impact to traffic; however they cost more $$$.
 
Bids are always inflated on TTC projects. Suppose for the sake of argument that the normal asphalt replacement cost is $10/square foot. On TTC jobs, the average bid will be 25-50% higher to account for all of the red tape associated with getting anything built on TTC property.

In my experience in dealing with the TTC, the actual production rate during construction is no different from private sector jobs provided that a private contractor is doing the work. However, ridiculous delays occur prior to construction beginning - during which time hoarding is already up - and after construction to get the new work commissioned, during which time the hoarding is still up.

It may appear like the project is taking forever, but little do people realize the construction work itself is only being carried out a fraction of the time that the hoarding is in place. This is due to TTC bureaucracy and usually not the contractor.

Different story when it's the TTC crews working on the project. They actually do move at a fraction of the pace of a private contractor. Since there's less red tape to deal with though, this cancels out and the project ends up being completed in the same amount of time.
 
Fixed that for you. Also, when I put in a new driveway it took over a year for it to be finished (settling issues or something). So, 3 months would be 9 months shorter than my situation.

Sorry. I've seen a driveway paved in an afternoon.
 
Sorry. I've seen a driveway paved in an afternoon.

Sure, the actual work time is quite short. An afternoon to dig down and lay gravel, a few weeks later they come back to put down a coat of asphault, and a long long time after that they come back again and finish it.

It's not like there were people working for that entire time but I was given directions on use (I.e. not to park heavy vehicles on it at certain times).
 
By the way of example, the sidewalk outside the station was redone in 2 days flat. They knocked off whole kilometer stretches of the Steeles repaving in 5 days. The TTC will be working a 100 m for 3 months. Taken in greater context, 2 months to replace a door, 2 months to redo a short staircase, a year to re-tile a small section of the Finch station... This is incompetence, poor planning, and waste. Apologetic doesn't change what's obvious.
 
Repaving over top of a subway tunnel is different (more complex and costly) than replacing a sidewalk or repaving a basic asphalt street or repaving a residential driveway. Quite often, other work, such as waterproofing and/or repair of the tunnel structure, will be done at the same time. While it is true that the TTC is not a model of efficiency, let's be clear that the private contractors are not without their blame as well. One good trick is to bid low to get the contract and then slow everything down by submitting all sorts of change requests in the middle of construction which leads to disputes and often results in delays while the TTC and the contractor try to come to an agreement. This happens more often than it should. Sometimes delays happen despite everyone's best efforts. When I had some renos done on my house, it took longer than originally planned, but it wasn't the contractor's fault, and I certainly didn't rant and rave about incompetence. Sometimes, things are not as simple or as obvious as they appear.
 
By the way of example, the sidewalk outside the station was redone in 2 days flat. They knocked off whole kilometer stretches of the Steeles repaving in 5 days. The TTC will be working a 100 m for 3 months. Taken in greater context, 2 months to replace a door, 2 months to redo a short staircase, a year to re-tile a small section of the Finch station... This is incompetence, poor planning, and waste. Apologetic doesn't change what's obvious.

Let's not forget the 5+ years it took to install a mother fucking elevator at Broadview station!
 

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