Broadway Subway - Millennium Line Extension to Arbutus | U/C

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

Originally Posted by Changing City

That's interesting. Do you have a link? It's always been described as a commercial site, with a replacement for City Hall.

no way will it be residential. CoV has owned that land for the new City Hall so long they wont lease it or sell it.

it is crazy how many different sites the CoV has around town. they'll need some big building to replace it all.

[jollyburger]

The traffic decking construction started this week until August. They said it's also starting soon at City Hall but no details.

Two eastbound lanes, one westbound from Kingsway to Columbia
No street parking
Monday-Saturday (some Sunday work)

https://www.broadwaysubway.ca/app/uploads/sites/626/2021/05/MP_Traffic-Change_May-20.pdf

[Jimbo604]

Originally Posted by Feathered Friend

Video link here
https://twitter.com/andrew_misiak/status/1394748033171038211?s=20

Well good riddance finally to these buildings that were holding Broadway and Cambie back. And Broadway itself. It only took at subway to get the city moving.

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by Jimbo604

Well good riddance finally to these buildings that were holding Broadway and Cambie back. And Broadway itself. It only took at subway to get the city moving.

I wouldn't get too excited until you see the development plans.

[Diegotheartist1]

True. We don't know what kind of project will be built there after the extension's completion.

[Jimbo604]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

I wouldn't get too excited until you see the development plans.

True true...

Not sure if it has been posted already but here is a Vancouver Sun article calling out the city for their mediocre approach of only aiming for a one story station building and the "possibility of future development". Instead of getting it together, finding a partner and building something substantial right now, instead of who knows when: link ​

"With a few local exceptions, Vancouver seems to lag behind some other world cities in transit-integrated developments that provide important public benefits..."

Anyways, the building in Feathered Friends' picture above (the east one) is now totally demolished & demo waste almost all cleared away. This leaves only the yellow building beside the Canada Line station. Wasn't able to get a picture, sorry.

[Migrant_Coconut]

I suspect that getting TransLink more involved with commercial development would have the usual suspects crawling out of the woodwork and screaming "conflict of interest" until they nixed it.

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by Jimbo604

Not sure if it has been posted already but here is a Vancouver Sun article calling out the city for their mediocre approach of only aiming for a one story station building and the "possibility of future development". Instead of getting it together, finding a partner and building something substantial right now, instead of who knows when: link ​
.

MoT and TransLink responded that concurrent development of building above or beside stations would:
- result in a shortage of staging areas for both construction projects,
- cause more disruption at station sites and
- delay the opening of the stations.

The ToD projects can be built later.

Future buildings overhead Broadway Subway station entrances possible
Kenneth Chan
May 7 2021, 7:15 pm

There has been chatter over social media for the past week on the desire to not waste valuable air space over the station entrance buildings for SkyTrain’s Millennium Line Broadway Extension.

...

So far, one common critique is that most of these entrances are only single-storey structures, with nothing above — such as a mid-rise building with residential and/or office space.

Some have also suggested such multi-storey buildings should be built concurrently with station construction.

...

The only two exceptions are South Granville Station and Great Northern Way-Emily Carr Station.

South Granville Station will be built into a private five-storey, mixed-use development by PCI Developments with retail and office.

Construction on this building is well underway after a simple development permit application was swiftly approved, but the developer is anticipated to return to the municipal government in the near future with a rezoning application for added floors for residential or extra commercial density.

The five-storey building at South Granville Station is currently being built to accommodate this eventual vertical expansion; there will be six underground levels of parking and an extra elevator core to serve an overhead tower.

..

Similar to the Canada Line stations, the designs of the Broadway Extension stations are fairly simple to allow for the relative ease of integration into adjacent and overhead developments in the future.

“A key design principle for the new Broadway Subway project stations is to maximize potential for future developments above and/or around the station entrance buildings,” reads a statement from the BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure to Daily Hive Urbanized.

“Simple, linear roof forms and station shapes, and incorporating ‘knock-out’ panels will help easily integrate the buildings with future developments.”

...

To fulfill the subway’s requirements, TransLink and the provincial and municipal governments acquired numerous properties along the route. The largest of the acquisitions was for Mount Pleasant Station — the southwest corner of Main Street and Broadway, where most of buildings on the block were recently demolished.

For South Granville Station, TransLink and the municipal government acquired a large mid-block site immediately east of the PCI Developments building footprint and station entrance. This mid-block site between Granville Street and Helmcken Street will be used for the construction staging and storage space needed to build the subway station.

It is important to note that the station entrance buildings will only occupy a small fraction of the footprint that was acquired. Over the next five years, these large sites will double as critical staging and storage space for station construction, thereby reducing the need to close more road space, which would only result in greater impacts to traffic including the reliability of the 99 B-Line during the construction period.

...

As a lesson from the disruptive practices of the Canada Line, there is an effort to take the construction footprint of the Broadway Extension away from roadways as much as possible, which is largely achieved by using tunnel boring machines. But some construction from the road surface is still required for the large underground station structures, which are double the size of the Canada Line.

Two lanes of traffic will be maintained in each direction for buses and other vehicles at the station construction sites, except for the intersection of Broadway and Main Street (Mount Pleasant Station) due to the narrower street width. Along other areas of Broadway on the subway route, three lanes of traffic in each direction will generally be retained, including one lane each way for buses.

This makes the idea of concurrent construction of residential/commercial buildings overhead the station entrance buildings challenging, and even if this approach were pursued it would greatly complicate the scope of the $2.8-billion project and could put its timing for a 2025 completion and opening at risk. More properties would have to be acquired for staging and storage areas; soaring land acquisition costs are one of the primary factors for the project’s cost escalation, up from $2.28 billion in 2015.

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/broadway-subway-vancouver-stations-mixed-use-developments

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by officedweller

MoT and TransLink responded that concurrent development of building above or beside stations would:
- result in a shortage of staging areas for both construction projects,
- cause more disruption at station sites and
- delay the opening of the stations.

The ToD projects can be built later.

We also need an approved Broadway Plan to clarify how big the developments can go. The office podium at Granville with the station box included, and a spare elevator shaft for a future tower on top may not turn out to be the best way to get something built either. (And that station also requires a vacant site to the east for subway construction).

[Express691]

As construction picks up, there are a bunch of stop relocations for the 9 and 99 (+ others) set to begin May 25.

The most impactful change so far will be the 99 to Broadway Stn moving to nearside at City Hall Stn instead of farside (thankfully this one is only until June 13).

https://www.translink.ca/alerts

[zahav]

I am confident there will be development at the stations, the current one story structures aren't permanent. It will be like a King Ed station situation I'm sure. I think the process of integrating the buildings would've slowed things down, and tbh I'd rather see construction start ASAP on the train and stations, and not wait for other building designs

[Colin4567]

Originally Posted by zahav

I am confident there will be development at the stations, the current one story structures aren't permanent. It will be like a King Ed station situation I'm sure. I think the process of integrating the buildings would've slowed things down, and tbh I'd rather see construction start ASAP on the train and stations, and not wait for other building designs

+ Vancouver would probably throw every station-top building into several years of public hearings/review/etc, and the particularly anti-subway, anti-development Councillors (i.e. Hardwick) would take delight in that

[Migrant_Coconut]

King Ed and 49th got built on, didn't they? Just needs to be "within the community plan."

[SFUVancouver]

Now that I’m back in the GTA, I have had my frustration at the mediocrity of CoV TOD come back in full force.

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

Originally Posted by SFUVancouver

Now that I’m back in the GTA, I have had my frustration at the mediocrity of CoV TOD come back in full force.

could you elaborate please? i can't be the only one wondering what TOD stands for.

[Migrant_Coconut]

AFAIK Toronto has less reactionaries - probably because they've already reached "metropolis" status.

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

could you elaborate please? i can't be the only one wondering what TOD stands for.

Here you go; it's a fairly common term, in and outside the forum.

[madog222]

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

could you elaborate please? i can't be the only one wondering what TOD stands for.

Transit Oriented Development

[logan5]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

AFAIK Toronto has less reactionaries - probably because they've already reached "metropolis" status.



Here you go; it's a fairly common term, in and outside the forum.

It's a good question, and it's a term very few outside this forum would understand.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by logan5

It's a good question, and it's a term very few outside this forum would understand.

It's common enough that you'd find it quicker with a Google search instead of waiting half an hour for a reply.

Back to the point, I highly doubt that we'll be waiting ten years for six floors.

[Diegotheartist1]

I believe the construction crew should demolish the extra guideway (single track) westbound of VCC Station. I doubt it serves any propose anymore, hence there's going to be a pocket track just before the tunnel portal.