Toronto Crosstown LRT | ?m | ?s | Metrolinx | Arcadis

[crs1026]

*sigh* The King Road project was slid over a Thanksgiving weekend iirc. At the time it was streamed live, with lots of ML publicity. As it happened IIRC one of the sub's was using proprietary technology and had not been warned about the streaming, so it was cut on and off all weekend depending on what could be seen on camera. While CN had a shoofly for freight, there was no VIA or GO service through the site at the time.

The West Toronto slides (there were a couple) also happened over weekend windows with the CP line severed for the duration of the slide.

As to the production quality, you'd have to ask ML if they had a Hollywood quality version. My dusty memory says they did.

- Paul

 

[steveintoronto]

*sigh* The King Road project was slid over a Thanksgiving weekend iirc. At the time it was streamed live, with lots of ML publicity. As it happened IIRC one of the sub's was using proprietary technology and had not been warned about the streaming, so it was cut on and off all weekend depending on what could be seen on camera. While CN had a shoofly for freight, there was no VIA or GO service through the site at the time.

The West Toronto slides (there were a couple) also happened over weekend windows with the CP line severed for the duration of the slide.

As to the production quality, you'd have to ask ML if they had a Hollywood quality version. My dusty memory says they did.

- Paul

"Sigh". Is that the sound-track for the vid? I've seen both those vids and more many times. They are NOT "productions!" The Crosstown vid linked above is. And it's a wonderful one. It's something that will *sell the project* and sell how serious they are in finishing it. Maybe you don't realize the impact that a well produced short like that, with sound and titles, has. But it certainly typifies what 'new media' demands in terms of sound, slickness and messages.

I'm the kinda guy that wishes there wouldn't be sound in space movies save for when a medium can actually transmit audio or concussive forces. But it would be a hell of a boring experience for most.

I've got a basement full of raw film footage of events, only the last generation or so have I moved to digital mediums, but they are not *productions* and very few if any are 24 hour two or three day continuous footage. And only the digital ones, and not all of them, have sound tracks attached.

Crosstown has just done something dynamic and interesting with this latest vid. It's a *production*. In fact, I'm going to watch it for a fourth time in an hour.

 

[44 North]

Official time lapse of the new Kennedy Station pedestrian tunnel GOing in. I can't quite make out if it's wide enough for 3 tracks though. And this type of continuous construction should be the norm for all projects, but unfortunately it's not.

Oh man, hard to watch that video and not feel anger about the Belleville Underpass project in Toronto that somehow took 20x longer than promised. Whereas this is an active rail line and they're adding a brand new underpass over a weekend, the Belleville Underpass was a disused track and mere expansion of a preexisting ped tunnel. It took well over a *year* to complete!

 

[steveintoronto]

Oh man, hard to watch that video and not feel anger about the Belleville Underpass project in Toronto that somehow took 20x longer than promised. Whereas this is an active rail line and they're adding a brand new underpass over a weekend, the Belleville Underpass was a disused track and mere expansion of a preexisting ped tunnel. It took well over a *year* to complete!

I certainly get your gist, but in all fairness, it was because the line at Kennedy was active that the imperative was there to do it in three nights and two days. I just watched that vid again, I get a buzz just by watching what non-stop work looks like. Again, that's an excellent video production. I hope to see more from Metrolinx and others locally like that.

 

[44 North]

I certainly get your gist, but in all fairness, it was because the line at Kennedy was active that the imperative was there to do it in three nights and two days.

Definitely key differences between the two. That being said there was imperative to do the Belleville project quickly too, albeit *relatively* quickly. It's not as if the major recreation corridor that was disrupted couldn't be described as "active" either. Obviously no one expects a trail underpass to be done in three days - which I guess is one reason they buffered for three weeks. Ample time, right? Yet somehow that promise morphed into ~70 weeks. C'mon, that's too much and needs to serve as a reminder. Like you imply when there's a will there's a way. But clearly in certain instances there isn't much of a will...and that notion is true for other projects too.

 

[steveintoronto]

^ I think we can agree that the Kennedy situation was Metrolinx and/or contractor at their best, and Belleville underpass Metrolinx and the City at their worst. Belleville underpass was just yet again an example of how cyclists 'don't count'.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

Here's a good example of the frustration I've been having with the management of lane markings during the Crosstown's construction. This is on westbound Eglinton Avenue approaching Spadina. Notice here that the lane immediately in front of the vehicle is marked as if it is an oncoming traffic lane. This car isn't in the incorrect lane (notice the position of the construction pylons separating opposing directions of traffic). The issue is that construction crews haphazardly reconfigured the lanes with the pylons, without reconfiguring the lane markings.

If you stand at the intersection, you'll notice some cars suddenly slowing down or swerving to the right, because they've observed that they're on the wrong side of the yellow line, and believe that they're on the wrong side of the road. This is the kind of unpredictability that causes collisions.

In no other construction project in the city have I seen such haphazard handling of lane markings.

 

[robmausser]

View attachment 140484

Here's a good example of the frustration I've been having with the management of lane markings during the Crosstown's construction. This is on westbound Eglinton Avenue approaching Spadina. Notice here that the lane immediately in front of the vehicle is marked as if it is an oncoming traffic lane. This car isn't in the incorrect lane (notice the position of the construction pylons separating opposing directions of traffic). The issue is that construction crews haphazardly reconfigured the lanes with the pylons, without reconfiguring the lane markings.

If you stand at the intersection, you'll notice some cars suddenly slowing down or swerving to the right, because they've observed that they're on the wrong side of the yellow line, and believe that they're on the wrong side of the road. This is the kind of unpredictability that causes collisions.

In no other construction project in the city have I seen such haphazard handling of lane markings.

I swear Eglinton is a social experiment to see how often they can reconfigure the road pylons daily until someone breaks.

 

[Steve X]

Definitely key differences between the two. That being said there was imperative to do the Belleville project quickly too, albeit *relatively* quickly. It's not as if the major recreation corridor that was disrupted couldn't be described as "active" either. Obviously no one expects a trail underpass to be done in three days - which I guess is one reason they buffered for three weeks. Ample time, right? Yet somehow that promise morphed into ~70 weeks. C'mon, that's too much and needs to serve as a reminder. Like you imply when there's a will there's a way. But clearly in certain instances there isn't much of a will...and that notion is true for other projects too.

It's all money money money. The cost of doing something like that over a weekend is significantly higher than spread over months. It cost a lot to get workers out on a Saturday night digging than on a weekday morning. In comparison to East Asia, everyone seem lazy here. A weekend job needed 10 times the number of works than one spread over months.

When it comes to assets between two owners, things just take forever to avoid the blaming game when things go wrong. Yes it's so stupid here.

 

[raptor]

From the GO train, noticed test glazing for the Crosstown station entrances. This one said Avenue (using TTC font for those who were wondering). For those interested, it's located at the back of 1130 Caledonia, near the GO tracks. Sorry I couldn't catch pictures but it looks exactly like the renderings, thankfully.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

I swear Eglinton is a social experiment to see how often they can reconfigure the road pylons daily until someone breaks.

I’ve already seen at least one accident that can be attributed to this “social experiment”. I’m sure there has been many more.

 

[yrt+viva=1system]

Since the topic of overhead cantenary system was brought up in another thread, does anyone know what the Crosstown will be using in the underground portion of the line (eg. Suspended wire or rigid cantenary)?

 

[EastYorkTTCFan]

Since the topic of overhead cantenary system was brought up in another thread, does anyone know what the Crosstown will be using in the underground portion of the line (eg. Suspended wire or rigid cantenary)?

Most lily a suspended wire as it's being designed from the ground up to be for LRT use. The ridged cantary like they are using in St. Clair is mainly used when there isn't space to hang the overhead as unlike with wire for a trolly pole wire for a pantograph needs to have some play to it and can sometimes hang lower.

 

[Leo_Chan]

My concern is that given what we've seen on Queens Quay that the tunnel portals may be a problem, hopefully I am wrong.

Well, there aren't many left turns onto Eglinton that are next to the portals. The only ones that may be an issue are from Kennedy southbound to Eglinton eastbound and Black Creek southbound to Eglinton eastbound. All the other portals don't have left turns near them.

 

[innsertnamehere]

Black creek portal won't have road access. Only Brentcliffe, the two Don Mills portals, and Kennedy.