Quote:
Originally Posted by aberdeen5698
Two points:
1. The railways have the right of way, it's no less efficient for them to use level crossings and so there's no incentive for them to spend money on grade separation.
2. Rail grades max out at 2%, which means any trenching effort to take the trains under a street would have to cover far more distance than a road bridge which goes over top. And the need to keep the line operational during the work would increase the cost further - you can't just shut the railway down for a prolonged period of time the way the city closed Powell street when they were grade separating it.
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Thanks - that was why I picked up on Vin's throwaway statement that somehow it would be easy to put the railway in a trench. It might be a much better solution than adding bridges or underpasses, but someone other than the railway company would have to acquire all the land alongside the tracks, carefully dig the trench to lay the replacement tracks in (which would be quite deep as they run double stacked containers on that line) and the connect the existing tracks to the new tracks. All that sounds more like a couple of hundred million dollars, and a lot of unhappy businesses forced out of their track-side properties. That assumes it's even possible, as there are active sidings to the south of the Prior Street crossing.
Even building an overpass over (or underpass under) the rail tracks on Prior would involve significant expense, as there are businesses (and a park) as well as a nearly completed
11 storey senior's home. The Powell Street overpass was in a more industrial (lower land value) area, and cost $50 million in 2014, so Prior Street would be more - and it would piss off Strathcona residents who seem to have lobbied pretty successfully to have the through traffic removed from their neighbourhood.
The other options aren't any easier - Malkin Street would disrupt the food wholesale businesses; National would mess with the Works Yard which is not that old, and was LEED Gold when completed, so not a cheap facility either. National or William both involve moving south towards the dodgier soils (towards the centre of False Creek, where the mud layers are thicker and more seismically challenging to overcome). The span across the tracks is greater too, so the bridge construction would be much greater (and so a lot more expensive).
If there was an easy choice it would have been chosen, but with a stalemate between the three options then on the table, Council thought they would punt the idea to the Community Panel (who weren't all from the immediate area). That 'solution' has come back to bite them - with an even more expensive and less logical choice suggested. Of course most of the Council who set up the idea have gone now, so the new Council gets to try to clean up the mess. In the meantime existing trains already disrupt the 22 bus quite badly, (as well as drivers, obviously) and emergency vehicles have to make a big detour to avoid the closed barrier (and there's a fire station very close by), so a solution has to be found. With the expansion of the container port underway, and the track doubling announced, things won't be getting any easier.
(Edit) - The panel results are being reported to council today - (Edit), then the Engineers will supposedly report back in the fall with how to proceed.
And none of this has anything to do with taking the viaducts down - if the viaducts were staying there would still have to be something done to the Prior Street crossing.
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