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GO Transit: Construction Projects (Metrolinx, various)

From the latest Metrolinx Durham email newsletter. Re Bowmanville Extension

DURHAM REGION
AUGUST 29, 2023

Pre-Qualification Procurement Tender Opened for 500 Howard Street for Partial Preservation and Partial Demolition 500 Howard Street is a Metrolinx-owned property in the City of Oshawa which was acquired for the Bowmanville Extension as the future site of the proposed Ritson Road GO Station.
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Figure 1: 500 Howard Street showing Part 1 highlight in yellow (to be retained) and Part 2 (to be demolished) highlighted in red.

Recognizing the cultural value of this building in the community, Metrolinx completed a Strategic Conservation Plan (SCP) for the property to identify potential impacts of the property's heritage attributes along with a follow-up Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) for the property which outlines mitigation measures and a comprehensive process for the stabilization and protection of the heritage attributes.

As outlined in Figure 1 above, Part 1 was built in 1870 and has heritage value identified through a Cultural Heritage Evaluation Report (CHER). As such, Metrolinx is proposing this portion of the building be retained, stabilized, and protected for possible future adaptive re-use.

After much investigation, it was also determined that Part 2 has no heritage value and will be demolished. The existing building is currently in poor condition requiring 24/7 on-site security to reduce the risk of break-ins, fires, and vandalism. The removal of the non-heritage components of the property will mitigate these potential safety risks while also enabling the delivery of the proposed Ritson Road GO Station along the Bowmanville Extension through the Transit Oriented Communities (TOC) program.

Throughout this process, Metrolinx engaged with the City of Oshawa's Heritage Committee with no major concerns raised.

To proceed on this process, following consent from the Minister of Citizenship and Multiculturalism, a pre-qualification procurement tender was released to procure a qualified vendor who has proven experience with large-scale demolition and more importantly specializes in heritage restoration.
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KevinT said:
Was the first picture also taken with the drone, or were you standing on the bridge? If you're still standing on the bridge, then I guess that means construction didn't start a year ago like they said it would at the Jan 10, 2022 Birchmount Community Open House... :(
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They're on a bridge, but they're not on the Birchmount bridge. The shot is taken from the Woodrow Bridge, which is in the centre of the lower drone photo.

And alas no, the construction still hasn't started - at least, it hadn't as of 2 weeks ago.

Dan
 
smallspy said:
They're on a bridge, but they're not on the Birchmount bridge. The shot is taken from the Woodrow Bridge, which is in the centre of the lower drone photo.

And alas no, the construction still hasn't started - at least, it hadn't as of 2 weeks ago.

Dan
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Good catch Dan. The first shot was taken from the Woodrow Bridge on July 7. The drone was just east of the Birchmount bridge for the aerial shot on August 29.
 
Sept 2
Haven't been to the Exhibition GO station in about a year considering on going to it a number of times this year and a lot of changes.

Seen photos of the stair, but what got me was the platforms. I hope the new locations of the existing platforms are temporary, otherwise a long walk to the entrance regardless being temporary. The new platforms are about 3/4 of a train length to the east with new style of shelters I haven't seen before.

The plan 5th track is a lot further to the north at the east end, but will match the plan location at the current plan location at the west end. The new temporary stairs on the north side look to be in the centre of an new platform that will stair going east from the stair. Another platform is on the north side of the 5th track

The walkway bridge over the tracks is ready to be install the next time the line is close in the coming weeks as well monthly until the end of the year.

Photos are now added to my backlog with unknown date when they will be uploaded to my site, but here a few untagged, number and unedited shots
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hw621 said:
Interesting they are still showing diesel trains in the renderings...
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Yeah not that surprising, to this point I’ve only seen about 3 artists renderings of a catenary with what looks like an unmodified diesel trains.

The real highlight of this is Go Expansion, which mainly entails dedicated tracking for service increases and early works for electrifying the network in a later phase.
 
cplchanb said:
its just stock images... same goes with the gen 1 cab cars with only a single cab window... nothing to waste time worrying about.
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reinventingthewheel said:
Yeah not that surprising, to this point I’ve only seen about 3 artists renderings of a catenary with what looks like an unmodified diesel trains.

The real highlight of this is Go Expansion, which mainly entails dedicated tracking for service increases and early works for electrifying the network in a later phase.
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Electrification being the core of Go Expansion, a reflection how seriously they take these things...
 
hw621 said:
Electrification being the core of Go Expansion, a reflection how seriously they take these things…
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Be that as it may, there’s a lot of other steps to improving the overall quality of service.

Electric trains may accelerate and decelerate more rapidly but that can only improve so much when we still lack other important features broadly across the GO network. Features such as modern signalling, dedicated tracks and grade separation from road traffic are all vital to improving service patterns.

Just electrifying and attempting to increase service frequency right now without these upgrades would lead to very slow trips, without exaggeration there would be major traffic congestion on the railways.

On top of all this they are in fact working directly on electrification right now, by way of electric locomotive design from Alstom (apart of ONxpress consortium awarded with contract for GO expansion).
 
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