West Side Transportation Cornucopia, part i

There are so many transportation bits and pieces related to the west side I’m just going to throw a whole bunch of stories up in the air like confetti, and you’ll have to try to figure out if what lands makes a pattern, or a coherent transportation plan. So come back to read fresh stuff every day for the next week or so.

On the good news front, I see the exterior station cladding is going onto the Pimisi Station foundation level. I am so delighted that it is a quality material (textured limestone?) and not just smooth cut blocks that look like concrete block (“cinder block”) basements.

Pimisi Station, lowest level, north side

Immediately after I took these photos, the finished stone walls were wrapped in plastic, perhaps to protect them from construction damage, or maybe til the big reveal when the stations open next August.

And here is the south side of Pimisi Station:

Pimisi Station, lowest level, south side

Up between the platform level and Booth Street level, the escalators are going in:

And for an overview, here is a drone photo taken last week by Yaro. Double click or something to enlarge it to fill your (large) screen:

Pimisi Station, drone photo, by Yaro

Readers may recall that the City has decided on the first steps to fixing the Booth Street Freeway mess they created against all the community, pedestrian, and cyclist advice given at the design stage. It’s an expensive fix, but should work. Note that in these city illustrations a lot of details are missing, which are probably going to be built, like measures to separate cyclists from pedestrians. Originally planned for construction in fall, 2017  (ie, now) they have been pushed off to next April (2018) since the Station won’t be opening until August. While the construction deadline has shifted, it still leaves the current unsatisfactory configuration (dangerously…) in place until next summer.

 

above: Booth, looking south, similar to the drone photo                                                                                                                                                                                     
looking south, cyclist point-of-view, additional separation features not yet detailed

 

Booth, looking north

So, the major elements for Booth Street north of Albert are in place or nearing construction, and the average citizen can picture what the final product will be like.

I think the major elements are falling in place quite nicely, and the finished product will work. Of course, there are many other projects in the immediate area which we will look at over the coming week, and how well they will integrate is unknown.

And then there is the known unknown, what will the Senator’s LeBreton wonderland look like and how will it connect to the Stations and the neighbourhood?

Next: the residential Booth Street 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11 thoughts on “West Side Transportation Cornucopia, part i

  1. “the Booth Street Freeway mess they created against all the community, pedestrian, and cyclist advice given at the design stage. ”
    — This is indeed a mess, and shows something fundamentally wrong in the way the whole system is organized.
    Insularization of responsabilities is a problem.
    Having no concern about what is outside of your own mandate is a problem.
    Highway builders build highways and don’t care about sidewalks, overpass, underpass, connections, pedestrians or neighborhoods. Station builders build stations, etc…
    Of course the builders themselves are not the problem, they build what they are told to. The whole design process is the problem.

    1. All week we will look at the various transportation projects underway on the west side of the downtown core. And yes, each one is a separate project and the lack of coordination is apparent.

      1. A couple of decades ago I asked a City of Nepean traffic engineer a question regarding the intersection of Woodroffe and Tallwood (the eastern entrance to/exit from Centrepointe). His response was that he would have to interface with his counterpart at the Region. I pointed out to him that computers interface, people communicate. He was not amused.

        Twenty plus years later, even after amalgamation, nothing has changed. Too many of the people who report to work at Laurier Avenue and Constellation Drive continue to “interface” with each other, rather than communicate.

        Silos are only useful in agricultural settings.

        1. I feel compelled to come back to Ron’s post as I believe it to an excellent observation.

          If you want to build an offshore oil rig, or a Boeing 747, an aircraft carrier or even an iPhone X, you need to successfully integrate a wide range of disciplines. And you must do it while meeting stringent cost constraints because if you do not your competitors are going to eat your lunch. Dinner and breakfast too.

          Sophisticated organizations deploy a wide range of sophisticated tools: PERT, Critical Path, there exists a whole cereal box full of acronyms.

          What I think Ron has touched upon is that our public sector organizations are operating circa the late 1950s and are incapable of managing the increased complexity of urban issues. And these issues have less breadth and depth of complexity than a MODU, an iPhone, or the latest Airbus.

          As taxpayers we end up paying for this lack of sophistication. I suspect the reasons include the fact the city is a monopoly, faces no external competition, “interfaces” only with equally unsophisticated organizations and therefore lacks knowledge of the “real world,” is able to extract all cost over-runs from an unsuspecting public and I suspect a key reason is that politicians like this level of inefficiency as it permits them to meddle, tinker, and obfuscate to their hearts content.

  2. I see the south side track in place, thanks for showing. What about the north side. Is the track installed there yet? One other point that you might have mentioned is why no attempt was made to construct a connecting track between the Trillium Line and the Confederation Line. Granted, Diesel-powered trains are prohibited from using the tunnel and electric trains cannot function without overhead wires but thought might have been given to having something whereby diesel-powered trains could run through to the west end which might be quite useful for special events, especially if an NHL rink is built on the flats. Just a thought. Similarly, there seems to have been no attempt at Bayview to build a connecting track to the line over the Prince of Wales bridge, unless provision has been made some how for a passage way under the Confederation Line. Certainly that would allow diesel-powered trains to work through to downtown Hull (Gatineau). Maybe you could do a commentary on such factors.

    1. Philip: both the north and south side tracks of confed line are laid at Pimisi and Bayview Stations. The Trillium N-S line terminates at Bayview, roughly where it is now. There is provision to double track it.

      The trillium track does not connect to the POW bridge, but there is space allowed for it to do so, or for a POW track(s) to arrive from the north and terminate at Bayview separate from the Trillium tracks.

      I expect to see progress on the interprovincial connection in spring 2018.

      1. Thanks, I was not thinking of double tracking the Trillium but rather having it connect with the Confederation line. Right now, neither “talks to each other”. I would think that they might want more flexibility in the future. Glad to hear that there is some form of physical access potential at Bayview for the P.O.W. bridge.

  3. I suspect the reason for the visqueen covering on the newly installed stone facade serves two purposes: 1 ) retain moisture while the cement cures; 2) Provide some temperature protection against near freezing overnight temps.

    On the POW connection is there any word on if this will include provision for a pedestrian or cycle track in addition to railway right of way? POW was an excellent means of crossing the river up until its closure by the city. Unofficial news is fine. I promise not to tell anyone where I heard it.

  4. I can’t wait till its up and running, im from montreal.
    Every time i go back, i make sure i take the metro.
    Mitch

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