GO Transit: Construction Projects (Metrolinx, various)

[mdrejhon]

mdrejhon, Metrolinx confirmed on twitter that stucco is not being used here, so why are you still talking about it?

Despite this, a fellow Hamilton resident is still insisting after reading the Metrolinx confirmation.

My point here is that the stucco-esq finish they are using to clearly finish this station in time is, like the games itself, cheap showmanship.

This, written after he read the confirmation.

Since the left hand sometimes typically does not know what the right hand is saying, I'll already pass by the station on my evening commute home, to get to the bottom of it. Only one Metrolinx confirm, conflicting with one Hamiltonian confirm. So I need to reconcile this visually to provide irrefutable answer. Need to make sure corners aren't being permanently cut as both me and DC83 are Hamiltonians with a commuter stake in this station.

 

[rbt]

I am browsing the events for things I might want to go see. It's an opportunity not to be lost, and it may end well.

There are plenty of early women's volleyball tickets still available.

 

[drum118]

Just west of Bloor St on the Milton Line, a large piles of snap tracks and Switches have been built as well store on the south side before Kipling. They where building then on site when I saw it Monday.

There is snap track on track 4 before Kipling Overpass. A foundation has been built for a new 4 track mast there as well.

Not sure what track or tracks are to see these snap track & switches. Work could take place this weekend since a number of excavators have been on site since Monday when I first spot this work.

No idea who is leading this work.

 

[mdrejhon]

I visited West Harbour and I couldn't find any stucco on any four of the building sides. And the interior drywall plaster work isn't stucco, it's prep work before painting the walls. The closest permanent thing that resembled stucco texture is white quartz gravel that they used for the roof of the platform buildings. Pictured in one of the photos below. That's not stucco -- but a million tiny white quartz rocks. These types of roofs tend to age better than bare metal (rust, tarnish, streaking), paint (peel), etc. It's low-maintenance. Nice they chose to use pearly white gravel, instead of common gray gravel.

I did witness people working on the elevator, working on landscaping, plus what looks like a wheelchair-accessible sloping outline of a sidewalk about to be constructed.

I also see the foundation for the parking garage facade (those stubby things on the concrete several meters in front of the pillars of the bottom parking level), so hopefully we get one of those 'fancy' parking garage facades that Metrolinx has been using for other GO staitons.

There was about a dozen construction workers at 730pm, so it must be the last final push to make the station building reasonably operational.

Here's a bunch of photos I have taken today:

The last photo is the biggest change -- they finished most of the sidewalk surface in just 48 hours, and actually also installed landscaping. From the extra work I'm seeing, West Harbour is going to open via MacNab street first before via James Street.

Given the limited time (station opens next week!), I see increasingly rapid progress on several station elements necessary to get people to the platform. I'd expect that the cashier booths and a lot of landscaping will be incomplete, but the building interior and elevator looks like it could be functioning, given the apparent attention to these details.

 

[44 North]

Not sure if I'm following this "stucco" discussion properly. But maybe someone just mistook steel beams covered with some kind of fire retardant intumescent coating. Regardless, these pics are great and it looks like things are coming along quite nicely in the Hammer.

 

[mdrejhon]

Not sure if I'm following this "stucco" discussion properly. But maybe someone just mistook steel beams covered with some kind of fire retardant intumescent coating. Regardless, these pics are great and it looks like things are coming along quite nicely in the Hammer.

Excellent point. This is correct.

I saw them spray a stucco-like fire retardant on steel H-bars at many construction sites. This is interior foundation and not visible... Fire retardant is important because steel bends under heat and a building can collapse -- a stucco-like fire retardant coated the internal H-bars of New York City's World Trade Center. Had it not been for that case, the towers would have collapsed faster during 9/11. Though the jet crash shredded a lot of that fire retardant coating off the steel bars.

I did not see any of this, but it's possible these bars have now been finished off into invisibility (hidden behind drywall).

 

[crs1026]

Just west of Bloor St on the Milton Line, a large piles of snap tracks and Switches have been built as well store on the south side before Kipling. They where building then on site when I saw it Monday.

There is snap track on track 4 before Kipling Overpass. A foundation has been built for a new 4 track mast there as well.

Not sure what track or tracks are to see these snap track & switches. Work could take place this weekend since a number of excavators have been on site since Monday when I first spot this work.

No idea who is leading this work.

They are rebuilding crossovers at Obico (Kipling), Royal York, and Osler St, at least. The only specifics I have heard is at Royal York, where the #1 mainline is being extended eastwards and a new turnout installed east of the current crossovers. That will give this interlocking the same configuration as Dixie and Desjardins - it will allow two trains to pass through the plant at the same time on diverging routes, eg one train going from the North to T1 while a second is going from the South Main to T2. I have heard one new crossover at Obico, but I don't know what the configuration will be.

Presumably this will improve GO's ability to coexist with freight trains.

- Paul

 

[salsa]

I visited West Harbour and I couldn't find any stucco on any four of the building sides. And the interior drywall plaster work isn't stucco, it's prep work before painting the walls.

So there was never any stucco in the first place. Much ado over nothing.

 

[mdrejhon]

Granted, a lot of textured coverings can be misinterpreted as stucco -- such as the fireproofing coat for steel, drywall plaster, or quartz gravel.

I just had to make sure.

 

[crs1026]

Here's the new crossover being installed at Obico (Kipling) on the Galt Sub this weekend.

This must be happening on GO's behalf, and likely at GO's expense, although I have seen no announcement of this. The interesting thing is how it enables two different routes to be lined into the Kipling GO station at the same time. This would almost make one wonder if there are plans afoot to change the GO service configuration - such as turnbacks, semi-express trains passing local trains, or even some minimal bidirectional service.

It could simply be giving CP more flexibility to interweave freight with the current service pattern, but since the current service is simply GO Train following GO train over a single routing, there is really no need for a fancier routing capability. It's possible that some other bit of plant will be removed from service after this one is operational.

The one thing I'm certain of is, absent GO, CP would certainly not be making this investment just for freight.

- Paul

 

[drum118]

This will mean the north track 1 at Kipling will be used for GO now since CP has being storing Auto Rack there in the past. It also means GO can shift to the south track 4 sooner than now to allow CP to have westbound trains on line closer to the area as well more of them to start moving to track 2 sooner once the GO train clears the block.

The new block signal mast is to the west of this location or just east where you see white crossing the 4 tracks 2 towers away.

I am sure this being done on Metrolinx dime with more to take place in this area.

The stock pile of snap track is to the east where the cut off is, 2 towers east.

 

[Jonny5]

Half the year gone and it looks like little to no progress has been made at Burlington GO station over those six months. The roof of the new station has been 80% done since I think last September. How far behind is this project now?

This report from the Star exactly one year ago says it would be done "Spring 2015". Missed that deadline too.

 

[DC83]

So there was never any stucco in the first place. Much ado over nothing.

THIS is stucco.. or at least a stucco look-alike (aka cheap)

via The Hamilton Spectator http://www.thespec.com/news-story/5709613-new-west-harbour-go-station-on-track-to-open-this-week/

 

[drum118]

Half the year gone and it looks like little to no progress has been made at Burlington GO station over those six months. The roof of the new station has been 80% done since I think last September. How far behind is this project now?

This report from the Star exactly one year ago says it would be done "Spring 2015". Missed that deadline too.

Metrolinx is great for blaming everything except themselves.

2 bad winter equal delay, Burlington Hydro has to upgrade the area before they can finish the station, got a contractor who is also late doing Clarkson Parking structure as well this one. I laugh about this project as in the short time frame that work has taken place on this station, a 14 story building has been built on Brock St with people moving in. Then there is the 23 story No210 Simcoe that even bigger than Brock has been built in the same time frame with people living there. I say to people who asked about the roof that someone is building it on their spare time at home as a subcontractor.

Talk is BT is supposed to be moving to the Loop in Oct and I say which year. Need to open the west end first so the east can be torn down to allow the building of the missing loop and canopy walkway.

Having watch first hand the work on the Georgetown-Kitchener Corridor, 2014 winter was a delay for the Diamond that was beyond anyone control, yet went into service a few months later than plan while this stand still.

Weston and Bloor Stations not complete as well a number of projects including this one.

I am in Burlington on Thursday and lets see if I will see any changes from last month visit as well the other months this year. This is a project that has gone south to the South America to completed in 3 years than the norm 1 year.

 

[drum118]

THIS is stucco.. or at least a stucco look-alike (aka cheap)

via The Hamilton Spectator http://www.thespec.com/news-story/5709613-new-west-harbour-go-station-on-track-to-open-this-week/

Off hand looks like precast. Without a good photo or seeing it first hand that what the photo tells me.