Confederation Line (Stage 1) | In Service 1.0

[McC]

The outdoor sculpture at Bayview Station arrived on the north side of the site on Monday, all wrapped up in plastic. Jeff Leiper mentioned on twitter that it will also be a bench. Here's how it was described in the announcement:

Cascades by Toronto artist Pierre Poussin, celebrates Chaudière Falls as an an important spiritual, cultural and trading hub for indigenous peoples.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/lrt-ottawa-confederation-line-1.4220157

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by roger1818

Upper middle class who work in the private sector. That is a large portion of the western suburbs.

I think you're right that that is the core "Harper Yes, Ford No" demographic. I'm not sure that demographic is that numerous outside of Kanata.

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

Willing to vote for Harper in 2011 and not willing to vote for Ford in 2018 is actually probably your typical Ottawan.

Ford is polling in the high 40s (unclear that will last though). At that polling level, a lot of Ottawans could be expected to vote that way.

Ford's core demographic is people who make too much to benefit from the various means tested programs Wynne has announced but are not affluent enough that they don't notice their bills. I think that is a lot of people in the Ottawa suburbs.

[zzptichka]

Originally Posted by McC

The outdoor sculpture at Bayview Station arrived on the north side of the site on Monday, all wrapped up in plastic. Jeff Leiper mentioned on twitter that it will also be a bench. Here's how it was described in the announcement:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/lrt-ottawa-confederation-line-1.4220157

Cascades?


http://www.pierrepoussin.com/cascades-2018

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by acottawa

I think you're right that that is the core "Harper Yes, Ford No" demographic. I'm not sure that demographic is that numerous outside of Kanata.




Ford is polling in the high 40s (unclear that will last though). At that polling level, a lot of Ottawans could be expected to vote that way.

Ford's core demographic is people who make too much to benefit from the various means tested programs Wynne has announced but are not affluent enough that they don't notice their bills. I think that is a lot of people in the Ottawa suburbs.

How did Mike Harris do in Ottawa? Ford seems to be that type of Tory leader, so Harris' showing might be a good indicator.

[c_speed3108]

Originally Posted by Acajack

How did Mike Harris do in Ottawa? Ford seems to be that type of Tory leader, so Harris' showing might be a good indicator.

Highway 416 would an example of an infrastructure project that was partly built during that timeframe. They definitely look for savings and such but overall got it done.

Election wise:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario_general_election,_1995

PC's actually did better in Ottawa in 1999:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario_general_election,_1999

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by acottawa

I'm not sure I follow. Bids haven't even been submitted and the contract isn't scheduled to be awarded until 4-6 months after the election.

Cutting it pretty close. And who's to say that the three proponents wouldn't bring the City to court if it was canceled. They're not going to kill a project this close to realization (and yes, I know Harris killed a project in TO that was under construction, but nowadays, it would be political suicide).

Conceptual projects like the Civic however, will be first on the chopping block.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by zzptichka

Cascades?

http://www.pierrepoussin.com/cascades-2018

Two of them? One would have been interesting, but two is too much.

[Kitchissippi]

It's kind of like, what we wanted was this:



but got this:

[Vixx]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

My main worry is that Ottawa will find itself politically useless in this election cycle.

Ford heralds a populist shift in PC tone that will resonate well with blue collar workers and the low income which could give them the GTA breakthrough needed to win the election.. But Ottawa doesn't really have those demographics and the unpopularity of Ford among the middle class white collar groups that dominate Ottawa will lead to poor PC potential here. The NDP have limited traction here. So all 3 parties may well write Ottawa off as a Liberal hold. I could easily see a scenario where the Liberals continue to hold most of Ottawa even if they fall to 3rd place in the legislature. Thats not good for us. We just have to look back to McGuinty to see how neglected Ottawa can be when we're not politically important.

Ottawa has its obvious Liberal strongholds but I think the PC's will garner more seats then people think. People all across the province despise Wynne like no one else and I think the June results will show, even in Ottawa.

With that said I do believe that Ottawa in general will be sort of 'forgotten' once the PC's win (quite frankly it would be if any other party forms government, even the Liberals) just because the mandate will be to reverse a ton of god awful Liberal policies implemented over the years. As well as focusing on GTA issues for obvious reasons. We'll likely be on the back burner for awhile.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Cutting it pretty close. And who's to say that the three proponents wouldn't bring the City to court if it was canceled. They're not going to kill a project this close to realization (and yes, I know Harris killed a project in TO that was under construction, but nowadays, it would be political suicide).

Conceptual projects like the Civic however, will be first on the chopping block.

I am not sure an RFP is a legally binding contract.

Conceptual projects are pretty easy to keep, the spending will not occur for years.

I think a lot it depends on where the bids come in.

[1overcosc]

Originally Posted by acottawa

Ford's core demographic is people who make too much to benefit from the various means tested programs Wynne has announced but are not affluent enough that they don't notice their bills. I think that is a lot of people in the Ottawa suburbs.

It's actually lower than that.. it's the working poor that Ford is popular among, which is new territory for the PCs.

As for Phase 2, the federal and municipal contributions are obviously secure, so the worst thing that could happen is losing a third of it.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

It's actually lower than that.. it's the working poor that Ford is popular among, which is new territory for the PCs.

I think that is the mistake the Liberals have made (and is causing them to mistarget their efforts). His ward in Etobicoke is a pretty typical middle class ward. In the mayor election, he won Etobicoke and Scarborough wards of various demographics.

I think part of the problem is that Liberal elites are so convinced that they are "middle class" (such as the "middle class" tax cut that only applied to those earning more than double the median income) that they think people that are actually in the middle are poor.

[M00dy]

Originally Posted by acottawa

I am not sure an RFP is a legally binding contract.

Conceptual projects are pretty easy to keep, the spending will not occur for years.

I think a lot it depends on where the bids come in.

RFPs are legal contracts, but they usually have clauses allowing the client to cancel the procurement process. Often there are honorariums given in the case it is cancelled to compensate the bidders for their costs...usually that's included in the RFP language. I'm not sure about what is the case for stage 2 lrt.

Look at BC - just cancelled last year the Massey Tunnel Replacement project after ~1 year of bidding & all bids being submitted.

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by M00dy

Look at BC - just cancelled last year the Massey Tunnel Replacement project after ~1 year of bidding & all bids being submitted.

In that case, it was very clear in the NDP's platform that they would cancel the project. Also, I am not sure what the funding model was for it, but I am quite sure it was a provincial project so they had full control of it.

[M00dy]

Originally Posted by roger1818

In that case, it was very clear in the NDP's platform that they would cancel the project. Also, I am not sure what the funding model was for it, but I am quite sure it was a provincial project so they had full control of it.

Ehhh they never came out & 100% said it before the election, but reading between the lines it was pretty clear what their intention was. I believe the statement was "we would tend to defer to the mayor's council judgement" and the mayor's council was not in support.

Edit: By that I mean cancelling the project wasn't part of the official party platform they had published before the election.

Doesn't change the fact it was an ongoing RFP process & cancelled on political basis. I think the payouts to each bidder were on the order of ~$2m

[acottawa]

This is for the Hurontario LRT, but I assume other RFPs use similar boilerplate language. Emphasis added.

10.1 General Rights of the Sponsors
(1) The Sponsors may, in their sole discretion:
(a) reject any or all of the Proposals;
(b) reject the Key Individuals proposed in a Proposal and, if not satisfactorily substituted, reject
the Proposal;
(c) accept any Proposal;
(d) if only one Proposal is received, elect to accept or reject it or enter into negotiations with the
Proponent;
(e) elect to discontinue the RFP Process at any time before the end of the RFP Process, including
after the identification of a Preferred Proponent but before Commercial Close;
(f) alter the Timetable, the RFP Process or any other aspect of this RFP, which for greater certainty,
includes the right to schedule Financial Close on the day after Commercial Close; and
(g) cancel this RFP Process and subsequently advertise or call for new submissions for the same
or different subject matter of these RFP Documents with the same or different participants.

[J.OT13]

Looks like the gantry crane on Queen at Kent is gone. Could have sworn it was there Tuesday.

EDIT: Nope, gantry crane is still there. Just had a bad angle from the office.

In other news, another accident. Refreshingly, it was ON Rideau Street, not under.

http://ottawasun.com/news/local-news/two...wcm/84606633-d2e0-4ba8-a963-1e892ec4019c

EDIT 2: Nope, underground.

[rocketphish]

Two men suffer minor injuries after collision at LRT construction site

Devyn Barri, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: March 29, 2018 | Last Updated: March 29, 2018 5:14 PM EDT

Work on a section of the Rideau Street section of the LRT project has been put on hold after two workers were hospitalized with minor injuries after an incident Wednesday night.

Police said the workers were injured when two transportation devices crashed shortly after 11 p.m.

The injured workers were last reported to be in stable condition.

Provincial Ministry of Labour spokeswoman Janet Deline said in an email investigators had issued one order to ensure the scene is not disturbed and another order for supervisors to provide relevant documentation.

Two orders were also issued to ensure that workers on the site have access to two-way radios at all times.

A stop work order remained in place Thursday morning.

The ministry’s investigation is continuing.

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news...after-collision-at-lrt-construction-site

[1overcosc]

Watson just tweeted that 31 of the trains are now completed with only 3 more to be assembled.

So it seems that train assembly was on track to meet the original handover date. It was just the tunnel that's late.

[PHrenetic]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

Watson just tweeted that 31 of the trains are now completed with only 3 more to be assembled.

So it seems that train assembly was on track to meet the original handover date. It was just the tunnel that's late.

Good Day.

Think they'll pause a bit to finish building more storage space (a month or two) or just keep trucking onto the Phase 2's 38 LRVs ?