London Roads

[jammer139]

It gets pounded by gravel and dump trucks every day. Hopefully they take the time to engineer a thicker base that will last longer then a thin top coat of asphalt.

[CanadianTalk]

Fanshawe Park Road West rehab (between Hyde Park Rd and Dalmagarry Rd) is set to begin on July 7th.

Construction will last until the end of September.

[CanadianTalk]

Here are the PIC slides from last night regarding the Western Road and Sarnia Road / Philip Aziz Avenue EA.

These slides are a bit more detailed than the ones shared on here last week as they show the design of the roads, and the rationale for choosing certain design concepts over others (ie: normal crosswalk vs scramble)

Edit: The link expires after a certain amount of time. For the slides, go to getinvolved.london.ca/westernsarnia, then under the Documents section, click on the June 23 PIC 2 slides.

[CanadianTalk]

The old building (that housed London Audio and Hakim Optical) at the SE corner of Fanshawe Park and Richmond is currently being demolished to make way for the major construction project at that intersection next year.

https://london.ca/projects/fanshawe-park-road-richmond-street-intersection-improvements-project

[haljackey]

So crazy they're doing this and building a transit village in the area but not doing BRT.

Transit oriented development without transit? Yep, that's London planning 101.

[Spoofy]

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[jammer139]

The fact remains the BRT plan for Richmond was insanely bad. I and many others rejected the proposal from the so called experts to build a bus only tunnel under the CP tracks on Richmond while leaving pedestrians, vehicles using one lane north and south at grade and waiting for the CP trains. That was the proposal. What genius came up with that concept? I believe they budgeted $90M for that. They also wanted to built an underground bus stop at Richmond and Oxford intersection for another $90M. Ignore the money amounts which we all know would be far higher in reality the idea to build a bus only tunnel and underground bus stop was absurd. Nobody supported that idea. Far better would have been a elevated LRT that would go over the CP tracks and return to grade just north of Oxford and find its way up by or thru part of Western to north of Fanshawe Rd. It would need to be elevated most likely in a few other spots on the way where it makes sense. With only a handful of stops and highspeed it would truly be an improvement over BRT and cut travel time from Masonville to downtown to a fraction of the BRT time.


That would be a real improvement that would get support

Originally Posted by Spoofy

I'm just as frustrated as anyone about the outcome of the BRT proposal. Still, I feel like the planning team/community doesn't deserve the majority of the blame for it (they absolutely deserve some blame, to be clear). The planning staff recommended the entire system be built, they did their job. They even got rapid transit into the London Plan. Now, I believe there's absolutely an argument to be made that the recommendation should have been for the LRT/BRT split, but at the end of the day, they did recommend the complete rapid transit system.

It was the councillors themselves, who when it came time to vote on the system, backed down and kowtowed to their NIMBY constituents. It was these same NIMBYs that are also making the entire project take much longer than it needs to as well. I looked back at the original timeline and construction was supposed to have started in 2018/2019, a full three years ago. By now we should've had done the White oaks - downtown portion, with the wonderland - downtown portion finishing up this year, and the downtown portion starting next year. That's almost half the system, and instead we don't have any of that and only have half of the downtown system built. The only reason for this delay is because the NIMBYs kept fighting back against the proposal until it was reduced to what we have under construction today.

To me, what has happened to the BRT proposal is a picture-perfect example of everything that's wrong with our local politics. NIMBYs have far too loud a voice, and their local councillors bend over far too easily to their demands. BRT is a great example of a community (certain wards) not actually understanding how a local initiative will impact them (it would have improved their day-to-day life significantly, even those who drive every day), and as a result of that misunderstanding, they canvass against it. There is an argument to be made that the planning team/community could have done more to show them they were misunderstanding the proposal, but at the same time, there is also an argument to be made that those same constituents are hopeless in situations like these.

[Djeffery]

The tunnel originally was an LRT tunnel, from somewhere near the north side of Vic Park to St Joe's Hospital. Still say the boat was missed in not using Wharncliffe rather than Richmond, but people wanted Richmond Row involved. Would have been a lot less pushback from Wharncliffe residents compared to the more monied Richmond folks, half of the route was rebuilt and the CP Rail bridge was being replaced. Plus it would have been a middle finger to Western and their demands for "allowing" the BRT to run through campus.

[jammer139]

Queens Ave resurfacing between Quebec and Maitland is kicking off.


https://getinvolved.london.ca/queensave

[jammer139]

After 3 weeks of closure Sunningdale Rd is reopened just west of the golf course entrance. They were hooking up utilities to service the new sub diversion going in on the south side. They rebuilt the road with new pavement and shoulders at 2 lanes wide. Hopefully they planned for and made allowances for the rebuild to 4 lanes which is scheduled for next year.

[CanadianTalk]

Originally Posted by CanadianTalk

Fanshawe Park Road West rehab (between Hyde Park Rd and Dalmagarry Rd) is set to begin on July 7th.

Construction will last until the end of September.

Almost a month and a half later and construction has not started on this yet.

[CanadianTalk]

Originally Posted by CanadianTalk

Fanshawe Park Road West rehab (between Hyde Park Rd and Dalmagarry Rd) is set to begin on July 7th.

Construction will last until the end of September.

Originally Posted by CanadianTalk

Almost a month and a half later and construction has not started on this yet.

The city posted on their facebook page that this construction project will finally start this coming Tuesday, September 6... two months behind schedule.

[jammer139]

Months late and no doubt costing more.

[Djeffery]

Well into the 14th month of Dingman being closed now. A reminder that only 5 years ago, the much more complex Veterans Memorial Parkway overpass was demolished and rebuilt, with new ramps, in under 8 months.

[CanadianTalk]

The EA has been completed for Windermere Road (from Western Road to Doon Drive's west leg) and Richmond Street (from Windermere Road to Thames River).

https://pub-london.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=94515

Page 21 of the link above shows renderings of the roads.

The EA recommends in-boulevard bike paths along both sides of Windermere, and a two-way cycle track on the east side of Richmond.

The Windermere and Richmond intersection will also be completely refigured. Changes include a re-alignment to provide better sight-lines, a new EB right turn lane, and centre medians for all 4 corners.

Construction is expected to take place likely sometime between 2024-2027.

[tyeman200]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

The tunnel originally was an LRT tunnel, from somewhere near the north side of Vic Park to St Joe's Hospital. Still say the boat was missed in not using Wharncliffe rather than Richmond, but people wanted Richmond Row involved. Would have been a lot less pushback from Wharncliffe residents compared to the more monied Richmond folks, half of the route was rebuilt and the CP Rail bridge was being replaced. Plus it would have been a middle finger to Western and their demands for "allowing" the BRT to run through campus.

When it comes to Western, London should have told them to eat dirt and we are doing it anyways. What is Western gunna do, move?? Yeah no way they would leave their old campus here for somewhere else, they are stuck here. London totally has the advantage over them. At the very least, I would tell Western we are building it in front of their campus, and of they want to be a part of it in the future, they are paying for it all.

[jammer139]

LFP coverage of testy Civic Works committee mtg.


https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/city...ering-outbursts-in-transportation-debate

[Spoofy]

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[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by Spoofy

I'm very interested to see if MVH gets reelected.. this kind of thinking just makes no sense at all to me. I don't understand how any sane adult can seriously argue against infrastructure that protects the most vulnerable road users, especially in London a city dominated by car culture and unsafe driving.

I can't stand the guy, and you can tell if you watch the online council meetings that he doesn't have a lot of respect amongst the councillors. Or at least the ones using Zoom and you can see their facial expressions when he talks (and talks and talks). I would love to see him defeated, but he has 8 opponents, none of whom are well known, so even if people are interested in voting against him, is any one of those 8 going to rise up to be the main opponent?

[CanadianTalk]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

...but he has 8 opponents, none of whom are well known, so even if people are interested in voting against him, is any one of those 8 going to rise up to be the main opponent?

Yep, I agree with everything you said, but this is the part that concerns me the most. As there are a relatively large number of people running against the incumbent, and none of them have a high profile (that I am aware of), the votes against the incumbent will most likely be split among the 8 candidates. I really hope I am wrong.

I don't live in Ward 1 anymore (I moved to ward 5 not too long after the last municipal election), but if I did, I'd be having a really hard time trying to find just one candidate to pick. If this provides a glimmer of hope, I do know people that voted for the incumbent last election, but will not vote for him this election.

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And yeah Spoofy, I also agree that it's strange to critique the addition of safer infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists on Windermere. Better infrastructure will enable more people to bike in the area (I know I would). But the whole road will need to be torn up in a few years for the replacement of sewers, watermains, etc, so why not add the protected infrastructure while the road is being digged up anyway?