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

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One thing this city does extremely well compared to YYC….is landscaping. The whole Connors hill “natural” landscaping is well done. Yyc would simply run concrete and asphalt without neary a thought spent on landscaping. Not just with this project but with it in general. Nevermind the fact that they are indeed a “desert” landscaped city anyway…..identical to Denver and Reno….mountain shadow effect.
 
This line is absolutely beautiful, with all the greenery. don't have pictures unfortunately, but they're even planting lilies and a few other small plants in a couple curb-bulb-esque spots in Downtown, near the Quarters Stop and by the Winspear. I was really surprised to see greenery going in there too. Here's hoping we can keep it all alive!
I think the landscaping is a huge part of what makes street running for this line makes sense; it's an excuse to beautify the street, improve the public realm, and inspire development along the line in a way that setups like the 111St corridor on the Capital Line or the 'hide it behind a berm' approach on the metro line by kingsway don't.
 
So many varieties of low maintenance for the climate bushes and grasses
Hopping off this, I absolutely love that TransEd specifically chose plants which would maintain some colour throughout the winter so that the ROW didn't look dead and depressing for half of the year. It's the small things like that which will not only improve the visual appeal of the area, but help nudge Edmontonions towards embracing being in a winter city. I personally think that the cold is easier to deal with, or at least my seasonal depression decreases, when there's a nice mixture of colours outside, and I don't need to see literally all plantlife 'shut down' at the same time.

On another note: 'No stopping that train': Where the mayoral front runners stand on the West LRT

And speaking of the VLW, Marigold released a bulletin stating that the WEM TC is being demolished to make room for the new one. I heard rumours that it would be integrated instead, so I guess those were wrong. Someone on Reddit claimed that they they were privy to the discussions about the existing structure slated to be demolished, and apparently it was designed to be temporary; the old one was just so decrepit and below ETS standards that they needed a stopgap until VLW construction started. That could explain why they only need three days to demolish it and clean up the site. Hopefully this is true, and ETS didn't waste money on building something fancy that only lasted a few years.
 
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Hopping off this, I absolutely love that TransEd specifically chose plants which would maintain some colour throughout the winter so that the ROW didn't look dead and depressing for half of the year. It's the small things like that which will not only improve the visual appeal of the area, but help nudge Edmontonions towards embracing being in a winter city. I personally think that the cold is easier to deal with, or at least my seasonal depression decreases, when there's a nice mixture of colours outside, and I don't need to see literally all plantlife 'shut down' at the same time.

On another note: 'No stopping that train': Where the mayoral front runners stand on the West LRT

And speaking of the VLW, Marigold released a bulletin stating that the WEM TC is being demolished to make room for the new one. I heard rumours that it would be integrated instead, so I guess those were wrong. Someone on Reddit claimed that they they were privy to the discussions about the existing structure slated to be demolished, and apparently it was designed to be temporary; the old one was just so decrepit and below ETS standards that they needed a stopgap until VLW construction started. That could explain why they only need three days to demolish it and clean up the site. Hopefully this is true, and ETS didn't waste money on building something fancy that only lasted a few years.
The old WEM TC badly needed to be replaced and that project was approved before the Federal and Provincial funding commitments for Valley Line West came through. If those committeement were made earlier before the WEM TC replacement project was approved, I bet it would've been cancelled to just wait for the new WEM Valley Line station.
 

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