Valley Line LRT/ Valley Line West | ?m | ?s | City of Edmonton

The_Cat said:
I imagine this wave of Covid could continue into March, depending on vaccinations and severity. I hope that the energizing of the LRT network can be achieved to facilitate systems testing.
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It is energized. It just took them longer to do it than planned. When the overhead wire was being built towards Downtown late 2020 into 2021 I noticed EPCOR building the overhead down Connors Road into Downtown, while someone else has done the rest of the line. I assume that was to help speed things up.

TransEd largely stopped any sort of mainline commissioning work with the LRV's back in October or early November for whatever reason.
 
archited said:
^^^^ Again COVID and the supply chain weak links are primarily to blame -- I wouldn't be too harsh on un-programmed delays.
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Covid hit in March 2020, the line should have opened on December 2020. All materials should have been procured and likely even staged for delivery by that time, so I don't buy supply chain weak links, unless TransEd was behind on procurement as well.
 
It's the largest project in the history of the city. There are bound to be cascading setbacks

How does one account for mystery slabs in the river, OHS shutdowns, a once in a lifetime pandemic, volatile weather, etc? Sometimes it just is what it is, and that unfortunately doesn't translate to anyone who has never had the shovel in their hands in the hole.
 
feelin a lil spicy tonight because covid-safe NYE, and this topic is pushing all the right buttons. So I went digging through my photos.
Transed started off on an... odd foot with the DT section of the line. The first thing they did on 102 Ave was install the big concrete footings for the caternary poles. That was the first thing, as in, before the old road had been dug up and regraded fully. they had to dig around the new footings. it was super bizarre. The odd choice of phasing played out worst east of 97 street, where 102 Ave had to be excavated for the Storm Trap cistern. the caternary footings were poured first, then the was road dug out around them, then the cistern had to be installed (which i recall taking a year or so, it was quite the process) and then the hole had to be backfilled, with soil put back around the footings. Below are the two photos i could scrounge up, one showing the winter work and the other showing the cistern almost done. It doesn't show in these photos, but i remember vividly the Westernmost footing in the hole listing a bit, and being tied back upright with ratchet straps.
IMG_3471.JPG

IMG_5277.JPG


I'm not a project manager or anything like that, but any observer could see that there was a planning error made with the installation of those footings. They should have gone in after the cistern, after 102 had been regraded, etc. Something big must have been miscommunicated for this to happen.
I think it may have been an omen of things to come, or a signal of disorganization within.
 
The_Cat said:
I sometimes wonder about the city departments. After street construction is done, EPCOR sometimes has to dig a trench for new water or electrical lines. Is there a better way?
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Yes there is, this was a common issue during my time in Planning and Design that stems from poor, if any, communication between communications and businesses. Then, even if warnings are provided for us to say, install a gas main imminently, it can take upwards up six months to run it's course through bureaucratic, regulatory, and administrative red tape. Such an environment means people do their portion of the job, push the paper off, then forget about it.

If people talked more, if people were allowed to work less efficiently and have more time, and if there was less red-tape so they can focus on their work, there'd be less errors.

This however, doesn't strike me as a planner error. And there has to be more to the story than we know, something such as geotechnical concerns in the area which would not be a surprise.
 
Ended up having to call out the fire department for a downed line on the Valley line this afternoon. I tried call Epcor and they told me to call 311, 311 told me to call Transed. They gave me the number that's on Transed's website and put me through. There is no recording, voicemail or anything on the number - it eventually just hangs up on you. Out of options I called 911 and the Fire Dept went out and was like yep... There is downed lines here. Epcor did eventually respond and confirmed the lines are live, however they don't have any access to the Transed stuff. One would think there would be some kind of emergency plan in place - certainly doesn't seem to be one based on my experience today.

Here is picture of the downed line today. It's one of the main cables that feeds the overhead from the substations.
FIIIgxzVUAAkytT


The more I see this project the more of a gong show it becomes. Having lived with it being built 4 blocks away and having to traverse through it to get to work etc has been eye opening just how poorly it has been build/managed.
 
The_Cat said:
That looks like 75 Street/Roper Road. Very sad to see city departments pass the buck.
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You are correct. Props to the person I called at Epcor originally. She must have seen my picture on Twitter that I tagged them in and said she was going to send a crew anyways to see what they could do. Fire was already on scene at that point, however Epcor ended up telling Fire they would handle it. I tried not to burden Fire with it, however I was out of options.
 
awstott said:
Ended up having to call out the fire department for a downed line on the Valley line this afternoon. I tried call Epcor and they told me to call 311, 311 told me to call Transed. They gave me the number that's on Transed's website and put me through. There is no recording, voicemail or anything on the number - it eventually just hangs up on you. Out of options I called 911 and the Fire Dept went out and was like yep... There is downed lines here. Epcor did eventually respond and confirmed the lines are live, however they don't have any access to the Transed stuff. One would think there would be some kind of emergency plan in place - certainly doesn't seem to be one based on my experience today.

Here is picture of the downed line today. It's one of the main cables that feeds the overhead from the substations.
FIIIgxzVUAAkytT


The more I see this project the more of a gong show it becomes. Having lived with it being built 4 blocks away and having to traverse through it to get to work etc has been eye opening just how poorly it has been build/managed.
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Welcome to the forum! I'm MatthewB on CPTDB. Feel free to post something in the Introduce Yourself thread if you want to :)

And wow, I'm absolutely shocked at how much runaround you got when trying to report a LIVE wire. TransEd is incompetent enough that I'm not surprised they don't have an emergency line, but for EPCOR to pass you on to 311 of all things? Yikes. I hope the publicity on Twitter gets both organizations to take a hard look at their procedures.
 
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CplKlinger said:
Welcome to the forum! I'm MatthewB on CPTDB. Feel free to post something in the Introduce Yourself thread if you want to :)

And wow, I'm absolutely shocked at how much runaround you got when trying to report a LIVE wire. TransEd is incompetent enough that I'm not surprised they don't have an emergency line, but for EPCOR to pass you on to 311 of all things? Yikes. I hope the publicity on Twitter gets both organizations to take a hard look at their procedures.
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Here's hoping that my call will get some processes in place. Really surprised that there is no emergency number published on the Transed site - what happens if someone breaks down on the tracks and needs to advise control - granted the LRVs aren't going to be running at freight train speeds, and don't weigh the same so they should be able to stop quicker, but why not have a number someone can call to advise of issues?
 
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