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  #81  
Old Posted Jan 10, 2025, 12:58 AM
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By contrast, California's state goverment doesn't have enough in-house expertise for the HSR, so they've hired subcontractors... and the subcontractors, taking advantage of the infinite blank cheque, have all overquoted and helped balloon total costs to $128 billion.
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  #82  
Old Posted Jan 10, 2025, 1:31 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CanSpice View Post
I'm sure this article describing how Madrid built its Metro cheaply has been around SSP over the past month, but the synopsis seems to be:
  1. Metro areas (such as the Community of Madrid, the rough equivalent of Metro Vancouver) has greater flexibility in levying taxes, including income and VAT, that they can use to raise funds for things like transit (Madrid has the Regional Consortium of Transportation, similar to TransLink).
  2. Time is money, so they removed burdensome environmental impact requirements (required them, just didn't make them as extensive), sped up approval of projects, and worked 24/7 to finish construction.
  3. Trade-offs are explicitly considered, so things like "design should be focused on the needs of the users, rather than on architectural beauty or exotic materials" are taken into account.
  4. A pipeline of projects enables the state to invest in its own capacity. Madrid has its own team of engineers, geotech experts, etc, etc, etc, instead of having to go out to third-party consultants, and they gained experience quickly because of the constant pipeline of projects. "With eight different tunnel boring machines operating 24/7 there were a lot of tunneling engineers solving problems and gaining experience. According to project folklore, these engineers would meet up after their shifts in Madrid’s tapas bars and discuss their challenges or successes, engaging in informal competitions to tunnel faster, encouraging speed and reducing costs."

The whole document is definitely worth a read.
IMO it's worth pointing out that the original Expo Line ticks off most of these boxes. The Provincial government shoved the project through despite the wishes of other levels of government to make sure it happened in time for Expo 86 (how's that for government flexibility and time being money), the original Skytrain stations were utilitarian and supposed to be standardized so construction would be quick (Needs of the users, not architectural beauty), and the technology was supposed to be a domestic industry that would be continuously developed and continually constructed across Canada (pipeline of projects).

Now, all levels of government have to agree (despite the fact that municipal powers are supposed to be at the whim of the province), we work tirelessly to ensure that Skytrain station designs are all completely unique and soothe the soul of transit users and local residents, and well obviously Innovia did not exactly pick up steam in Canada (seems Canada has a track record of that, see CANDU.)
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  #83  
Old Posted Jan 10, 2025, 1:57 AM
madog222 madog222 is offline
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Originally Posted by chowhou View Post
we work tirelessly to ensure that Skytrain station designs are all completely unique and soothe the soul of transit users and local residents
Not really. Save for the origional Millennium Line stations all have been of a standardized design, with recent unique identifying features limited to an accenting colour.
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  #84  
Old Posted Jan 10, 2025, 3:51 AM
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Originally Posted by madog222 View Post
Not really. Save for the origional Millennium Line stations all have been of a standardized design, with recent unique identifying features limited to an accenting colour.
Perhaps you missed that we just finished round two of public engagement purely for the SLS Skytrain designs?

https://engage.gov.bc.ca/govtogetherbc/engagement/surrey-langley-skytrain



https://engage.gov.bc.ca/app/uploads/sit...Enhancements-Boards-November2024-WEB.pdf

Last edited by chowhou; Jan 10, 2025 at 4:02 AM.
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  #85  
Old Posted Jan 10, 2025, 5:16 AM
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Originally Posted by mcj View Post
I mean, sure the latest price tag is shocking if you haven't kept up with how much construction has been inflated over the last few years, but sitting and waiting on this project for 17 years (this thread started in 2008) isn't going to make things cheaper. Maybe without Dianne Watt's obfuscating LRT plans this would have been done sooner and therefore cheaper but here we are
Wasn't it Linda Hepner who was so gung ho for the LRT?
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  #86  
Old Posted Jan 10, 2025, 7:50 AM
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Wasn't it Linda Hepner who was so gung ho for the LRT?
Both.
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  #87  
Old Posted Jan 11, 2025, 8:43 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chowhou View Post
the original Skytrain stations were utilitarian and supposed to be standardized so construction would be quick (Needs of the users, not architectural beauty)
They were almost cookie cutter from AGU's work on the U-Bahn.
I will actively challenge its (lack of) beauty even though it's been bastardized over the decades.
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  #88  
Old Posted Jan 11, 2025, 9:23 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MIPS View Post
They were almost cookie cutter from AGU's work on the U-Bahn.
Wow, that looks eerily familiar even though I've never seen it before...
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  #89  
Old Posted Jan 12, 2025, 10:46 PM
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Originally Posted by jollyburger View Post
"Behind the fence" means it was an at-grade section. All sections that are not underground are "elevated guideway"

Beside the point I was making. I searched for the most recent vandalism of the trains, not the guideway. Vandals will always break into areas that are not secured, and a simple padlock is not a good enough deterrent for vandals. Heck look up lockpickinglawer and see how quickly nearly every kind of lock can be opened with skill and two metal objects if someone wanted to break in non-destructively.

Anyway the point I was making was that storing the trains on the track overnight increases the potential for vandalism. The underground areas are less likely to be vandalized if only because access to those areas are already more difficult to reach. There is one exception to that, and it's an area that's been used to film television shows under waterfront station. If you've ever worked in the area below Canada Place convention center, you'd know the area I'm talking about, and you can see this area from the Skytrain when it enters waterfront.

If Translink wanted to make use of these areas they would need to do more than just "fence off" the area, they would need intrusion alarms and video surveillance over every meter of the guideway, and it's just impractical to do that on a permanent basis. Realistically you want a enough yard space for the entire fleet, and there is nothing stopping translink from doing what Penn Central did and have air rights so things can be built things over top the yard to make it more secure. We're always crying about lack of affordable housing and lack of parks. So if you design your storage yard correctly with space for building piles/foundations, you can then build a park on top, and then housing towers when there is need of them.
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  #90  
Old Posted Jan 13, 2025, 3:23 AM
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Originally Posted by Kisai View Post
The underground areas are less likely to be vandalized if only because access to those areas are already more difficult to reach.
If you're going to store trains on the line, the big advantage of storing them in underground sections is that nobody can see that they're there. Exactly the same reason as why you shouldn't leave valuables in plain sight in a locked car.
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  #91  
Old Posted Jan 18, 2025, 1:31 AM
madog222 madog222 is offline
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New photos taken 8 January.
The first shows a concrete pump truck setup beside station foundation piles, that's good enough for me for a thread title update!

Foundation construction by B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Transit, on Flickr

Mobile crane set-up by B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Transit, on Flickr
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  #92  
Old Posted Jan 18, 2025, 4:30 AM
jollyburger jollyburger is offline
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The precast concrete plant being setup

Precast Yard at Sunset by B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Transit, on Flickr

Precast Yard Aerial by B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Transit, on Flickr

Quote:
The subject site is approximately 14.6 hectares in area and located on the south side of 24
Avenue at the eastern boundary (196 Street) of the Campbell Heights Business Park, adjacent
the Township of Langley.
Quote:
The applicant proposes a temporary use permit to permit the operation of a manufacturing
and storage facility (precast yard) of guideway concrete precast segments for the SurreyLangley Skytrain (SLS) project, for a period not to exceed three years.
 The precast yard will manufacture and store approximately 5,000 concrete guideway
segments, which form critical components of the SLS project.
https://www.surrey.ca/sites/default/files/planning-reports/PLR_7924-0046-00.pdf
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  #93  
Old Posted Jan 18, 2025, 9:50 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mr.x View Post
Announcement on extension of Expo-Line could come Thursday

Wednesday, December 10 - 03:09:26 PM Lyle Fisher

SURREY (NEWS1130) - Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon and TransLink CEO Tom Prendergast will be making a major announcement Thursday morning at Surrey's Gateway SkyTrain station. There's speculation it could be about the proposed expansion of the Expo-Line into Surrey.

Back in January Premier Gordon Campbell unveiled his $14 billion transportation plan for the region, and said a 6 kilometre extension of the Expo Line to Guildford would be completed by the year 2020. Falcon said an expanded line would likely continue along 104th Avenue, down 152nd Street to the Fraser Highway and end at 168th Street.

Anita Huberman with the Surrey Board of Trade says she's hopeful the expansion gets fast-tracked by the province. "There also needs to be a 'light rail' option for Surrey. Surrey is a huge city, and we have different areas where transit is inaccessable, so we're hoping (for) a combination of light rail and rapid transit. We need options to get around the city. We have 1,500 people a month moving into Surrey."
So a little over 16 years for this thread to change from proposed to under construction! Though the route isn’t quite what was announced in 2008.
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  #94  
Old Posted Jan 29, 2025, 3:16 AM
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  #95  
Old Posted Jan 29, 2025, 8:07 AM
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Originally Posted by officedweller View Post
Seven-month closure of a part of Fraser Highway for SkyTrain construction begins this April
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/surrey-langley-skytrain-fraser-highway-closure-construction-2025
Ouch - that's gonna hurt...
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  #96  
Old Posted Jan 29, 2025, 10:25 PM
GMasterAres GMasterAres is offline
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Yah, they did that before to a degree. The stretch from 140 all the way to 148 was closed for the better part of a year I believe it was when they initially widened the road a few years back. If this is just 140 > 96 it may not be as bad as that original one given you technically will have 96th you can go around and get back on Fraser Highway, or Green Timbers way to cut over to 96th.

Definitely an impact though.
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  #97  
Old Posted Feb 1, 2025, 10:14 PM
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Originally Posted by aberdeen5698 View Post
Ouch - that's gonna hurt...
oh yeah it hurts, my eyes. got some more pixels?
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  #98  
Old Posted Feb 3, 2025, 2:02 PM
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They did a similar shutdown when they widen Fraser highway through the wooded area and it wasn't the end of the world people will adapt.

We need to get this built.
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  #99  
Old Posted Feb 24, 2025, 10:09 PM
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2025, Feb 23

152 Street

My GoPro video:

https://youtu.be/TJLJwl9RNoM?si=nO4ZP7BEqXA1ZwNI

Untitled by Lexus LX, on Flickr
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  #100  
Old Posted Mar 1, 2025, 3:12 AM
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New press release about the guideway construction reaching a "milestone".

Quote:
...

Early works, including site preparation and utility relocation, began in spring 2024. Major construction activities followed in November 2024. Construction is progressing with guideway columns starting to be visible at multiple station sites.

...

Construction in 2025 is focused on foundations for roughly 200 guideway piers and columns. The development of the pre-cast concrete facility in Surrey’s Campbell Heights and starting construction of Green Timbers and Langley City Centre stations is also planned in 2025.

...

As the project progresses into spring, column and pier construction will advance, and crews will begin casting more than 4,400 concrete segments that form the guideway. Four gantry launchers, which are purpose-built cranes to build the guideway, will be assembled to lift and put the segments in place this summer. The launchers will be located at 152 Street, Bakerview-166 Street and Hillcrest-184 Street stations.

...
With four gantry cranes working at once, guideway construction is gonna go pretty quickly. The Evergreen Extension only had one gantry crane on the project that they had to dismantle and move to Coquitlam after they got finished doing the bit up North Road.
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