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YRT/Viva Construction Thread (Rapidways, Terminals)

Is any of the VivaNext system going to be true Transitway like the York U TTC/ MiWay Transitway or just bus ROW like they currently have?
 
EDCO, an EllisDon Led Consortium with Coco Paving, Selected as Preferred Proponent to Design, Build and Finance the Next Phase of York Viva Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Expansion (see link)

MARKHAM, August 5, 2015 – Metrolinx and York Region Rapid Transit Corporation (YRRTC) have selected EDCO as the preferred proponent to design, build and finance the dedicated York Viva Bus Rapid Transit rapidways along the Highway 7 transit corridor in the City of Vaughan and Town of Richmond Hill.
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Once the final contract details have been negotiated, EDCO will deliver the vivaNext segments, including approximately 12 kilometres of rapidways, 10 new vivastations, bridge widenings, culvert extensions and enhanced boulevards, along the existing Highway 7 transit corridor. The first segment will extend from Helen Street to Interchange Way/Edgeley Boulevard, and the second segment from Bowes Road to Yonge Street via the existing Centre Street and Bathurst Street route. VivaNext rapidways are being built along 34 kilometres of key York Region corridors and will include a total of 38 new vivastations.

This initiative is part of the York Viva BRT project which represents a $1.4 billion transit investment from the Government of Ontario, and is part of Metrolinx's Regional Transportation Plan, a 25-year plan for an integrated and sustainable transit and transportation system in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA). The project is being implemented by Metrolinx, an agency of the Province of Ontario. Visit metrolinx.com more information.
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Looks like the contract is finalized. From the province today:

Ontario Making Progress on York Viva Bus Rapid Transit
This contract — totalling $333.2 million — was secured using the Alternative Financing and Procurement model which leverages private sector resources, expertise and efficiencies and transfers risks to the private sector – including cost overruns – in order to protect the tax payer.
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Most of the rest of the press release is identical to the earlier press release from EDCO.
 
I'm currently taking a bus through the construction on Davis, the first time I've seen it, and I have no clue how they expect to have it finished in a couple of months! Roads aren't paved, barriers aren't up yet, Viva stations aren't constructed, etc. I figured it would be finishing up, that the worst would be through, but instead it feels more like we are only midway through construction!
 
New sidewalks have appeared on Hwy 7, but only on the north side.

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Creditstone station (east of Jane).

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Bridge widening (between Keele and Jane) is underway on the north side. Afterwards, the same will be done on the south side.

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Keele station.

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Adjei said:
They should have buried the hydro wires since they are digging up the streets.
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This idea seems to come up repeatedly. They wanted to bury them but it was way too expensive. It wasn't included in the provincial funding for the project itself and I'm sure if I looked I could find the numbers but it was something crazy like $7M/km to bury the lines and no one wanted to foot the bill. So, we're stuck with them.

Ah - here's the closest anyone came to pulling the trigger - note it's nearly $10M per km.
http://www.yorkregion.com/news-story/1436323-pay-to-bury-hydro-lines-markham-told/
 
In other places where something like this is of importance to them, they would have legislated something like this in place, so that all future projects make provisions for this but I guess it can't be done here. In doing this, you can start to get rid of them over time without having to do it all at once in one big project. To build a nice project like this while having all these wooden poles with hydro wires all over the place is absurd.
 
I don't think anyone disputes it would look better without the poles and everyone knows it's a challenge turning a suburban "highway" into an urban street, but legislation is not the issue - money is.
In theory the ice storm a couple of years ago could have lead to the province revisiting the code for hydro, requiring poles to be replaced by buried lines when possible etc. but there's too many cooks, starting with 2 levels of municipal government and Powerstream and Hydro One.

We're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars and, like the man said, there's only one taxpayer. As you can see from the article, they looked into tacking it onto Development Charges and electric bills but no one wanted that. We live in an era of austerity and you get what you pay for.

I hope it's figured out over the long term but I get why the province didn't want to include it in the overall Viva costs and I don't know how you get everyone to agree to pay for it.
 
TJ O'Pootertoot said:
I don't think anyone disputes it would look better without the poles and everyone knows it's a challenge turning a suburban "highway" into an urban street, but legislation is not the issue - money is.
In theory the ice storm a couple of years ago could have lead to the province revisiting the code for hydro, requiring poles to be replaced by buried lines when possible etc. but there's too many cooks, starting with 2 levels of municipal government and Powerstream and Hydro One.

We're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars and, like the man said, there's only one taxpayer. As you can see from the article, they looked into tacking it onto Development Charges and electric bills but no one wanted that. We live in an era of austerity and you get what you pay for.

I hope it's figured out over the long term but I get why the province didn't want to include it in the overall Viva costs and I don't know how you get everyone to agree to pay for it.
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This can be done. There just needs to the political will for it be done. It is just not as important an issue to the politicians and the populace for it to be done. The money is there. There are places in Europe where something like this would not be happen because they value aesthetics and how things look which is not valued here. Those places are not any richer than here. They just feel the need to do this. There is enough money within the system to pay for this if this is an important issue. Also if i recall, weren't they hydro lines buried on St. Clair after they did the streetcar line there? Other places are able to do it, I don't see why it can't be done here if we feel it is important to us.
 
I thought the bridge widening west of Keel was completed on the South side already and now it's in the home stretch doing the North side? Can anyone confirm?
 
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