Hamilton's B-Line LRT construction

[TheRitsman]

Received this response from staff:

"The 2017 design is the latest available design drawing for Hamilton LRT. The 2017 design is currently being reviewed and updated to incorporate Complete Streets Guidelines, Vision Zero and the Main Street conversion, along with any other new City policies or guidelines adopted after the project was paused in 2019. We anticipate an updated design will be available to the public in early 2024."

Also with the project office not opening early 2023 as planned, procurement not started, and other worrying factors, it seems major construction may in fact be delayed to 2025.

[Corktowner]

I can't help but suspect that major construction isn't going to happen at all. But if it is, then 2025 is probably the absolute earliest it could start given where things are now.

[spaghettisam]

Starting to agree with the sentiment I won’t see this until my grandchildren are here (I’m a university student btw).

[Allroadsleadtoham]

This is sad.

[Allroadsleadtoham]

Just listened to the Scott Radley show little segment on the LRT. They’re thinking breaking ground by maybe 2025 and full project line won’t be built due to material, interest rate and labour constraints.

[NortheastWind]

Originally Posted by Allroadsleadtoham

Just listened to the Scott Radley show little segment on the LRT. They’re thinking breaking ground by maybe 2025 and full project line won’t be built due to material, interest rate and labour constraints.

https://globalnews.ca/hamilton/program/scott-radley-show

[TheRitsman]

Originally Posted by Allroadsleadtoham

Just listened to the Scott Radley show little segment on the LRT. They’re thinking breaking ground by maybe 2025 and full project line won’t be built due to material, interest rate and labour constraints.

I mean, it's fun to speculate, but these guys, nor am I an expert, but I'll be waiting for official information. I don't expect anything short of Queenston Circle, but Eastgate seems likely at this point. We may see it done in phases, like McMaster to Queenston Phase 1, and Queenston to Eastgate as Phase 2.

[Innsertnamehere]

I’d be extremely surprised if it isn’t the full LRT to Eastgate in one phase at this point. The budget isn’t fixed like the podcast portrays from my understanding - they are building it. That’s how every other Metrolinx transit project has been, no reason to think this one is otherwise.

[TheHonestMaple]

Water infrastructure relocation has started.

[TheHonestMaple]

Apparently they uncovered the old street car rails from the 1800s today at King and Sherman during the water main replacement work. That's pretty cool!

[matt602]

Wish I could see that. Haven't seen them since there was a small portion of them visbile on James South near the GO station.

[craftbeerdad]

Here you go, via the Hamilton LRT IG

[SteelTown]

The city literally threw some rocks and poured cement over the rails, instead of removing them.

[Innsertnamehere]

To be fair, most cities did. Toronto has dug up old tracks on roads where it abandoned tracks as well.

It’s easy to forget how many cities in Ontario had streetcars back in the day too. Even relatively small places like Woodstock had some kind of streetcar service. There was a streetcar that even went between Brantford and Port Dover!

I’m sure there are old streetcar tracks under layers of asphalt all over the province, to be honest.

[ScreamingViking]

I seem to remember old tracks being uncovered somewhere downtown (it may have been King) the last time one of the streets was ripped up for reconstruction... but that would have been a long time ago (early 1990s? I think I was taking the B-Line to Mac and had to make extra commute time before classes to account for delays)

I've been seeing more and more large road cuts along King and Main and even some of the side streets. They do get resurfaced to the level of surrounding pavement, but until then they're quite the shock unless you slow right down. I've wondered if that's related to this early work on water mains.

[TheRitsman]

Originally Posted by ScreamingViking

I seem to remember old tracks being uncovered somewhere downtown (it may have been King) the last time one of the streets was ripped up for reconstruction... but that would have been a long time ago (early 1990s? I think I was taking the B-Line to Mac and had to make extra commute time before classes to account for delays)

I've been seeing more and more large road cuts along King and Main and even some of the side streets. They do get resurfaced to the level of surrounding pavement, but until then they're quite the shock unless you slow right down. I've wondered if that's related to this early work on water mains.

A lot of those are just proper road patches. We're not accustomed to them in Hamilton because our previous council didn't spend the money to do road patches correctly. When they install the asphalt, they have to put 1 layer down and let it settle over a few days and then come back and do a second layer. During that time there's a huge hole in the road that is typically the depth of a layer of asphalt.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by TheRitsman

A lot of those are just proper road patches. We're not accustomed to them in Hamilton because our previous council didn't spend the money to do road patches correctly. When they install the asphalt, they have to put 1 layer down and let it settle over a few days and then come back and do a second layer. During that time there's a huge hole in the road that is typically the depth of a layer of asphalt.

There are a couple near me that replaced cuts that were very poorly patched before (e.g., there were a few on Main at the Delta that had been there a long time). But I've noticed more cuts where there were none previously, and no apparent pavement issue I can recall (at least not any worse than average, for our wonderfully smooth roads). I haven't done much driving outside of east-central Hamilton in the past few months though, so my "sample size" is limited.

The city's final patching is definitely better than what has been done by others cutting into the roadways, and before that final layer is put down the edges are painted orange so one knows better they need to slow down. Hopefully it holds up much better during the coming winter and freeze-thaw cycles, but the seams are very even with the existing surface so I imagine they'll be less susceptible to water seeping in.

[TheRitsman]

Originally Posted by ScreamingViking

There are a couple near me that replaced cuts that were very poorly patched before (e.g., there were a few on Main at the Delta that had been there a long time). But I've noticed more cuts where there were none previously, and no apparent pavement issue I can recall (at least not any worse than average, for our wonderfully smooth roads). I haven't done much driving outside of east-central Hamilton in the past few months though, so my "sample size" is limited.

The city's final patching is definitely better than what has been done by others cutting into the roadways, and before that final layer is put down the edges are painted orange so one knows better they need to slow down. Hopefully it holds up much better during the coming winter and freeze-thaw cycles, but the seams are very even with the existing surface so I imagine they'll be less susceptible to water seeping in.

I think the city's auditing system is a bit of a mess. They do medium quality issues and miss the really bad ones. Something similar happened with the sidewalk replacements in ward 2.

It was my understanding that we were going to start filling gaps with tar glues stuff to seal cracks and reduce freeze/thaw damage, but I have yet to see that. The best place to start would be these patches so that they are kept free of water.

[TheHonestMaple]

Both AECOM and WSP announced that they have been brought on as Technical Advisors for this project this week. So something appears to be happening behind the scenes lately.

[Beedok]

Can we save some money by using those old tracks?