Valley Line LRT | TransEd/Marigold | City of Edmonton

positive1 said:
You have to move the utilities before you build the tracks because one is on top of the other. Like building a roof after you have built the walls. Gravity is a nuisance.

More seriously though you also need to maintain utilities and services to homes and businesses, move and work with heavy machinery, move dirt and materials around the site and in most areas maintain traffic flow. Not simple.
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There is a strong argument for completely shutting down roads during major infrastructure projects like the Valley Line. The additional cost of traffic control, just for the purpose of not hearing complaints is a failure.

Traffic control is burning money that could be spent on improving infrastructure. I'm very happy that this is the route taken with much of the line, but it should be the vast majority.
 
Habibfazil said:
Really don't understand why they don't do everything at once, utilities, tracks etc. as they already know what is going where, Instead of these multiple projects done multiple times on the same stretch of road.
As for placing bets, I'll go with some large concrete structure just discovered in the river (haven't used that for a while)
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They do things all at once though. You forget that they must also balance traffic concerns, pedestrian access, etc. Once they finish the utilities, they have to do the Duct banks that carry all the signals lines, electrical cables, OCS foundations and more. It’s a very complex process.
 
Barnaby said:
There is a strong argument for completely shutting down roads during major infrastructure projects like the Valley Line. The additional cost of traffic control, just for the purpose of not hearing complaints is a failure.

Traffic control is burning money that could be spent on improving infrastructure. I'm very happy that this is the route taken with much of the line, but it should be the vast majority.
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Yep. That’s why Marigold went ahead and shut down that part of Stony plain road for this year. Same thing Transed did at 95 Avenue for those who remember
 
positive1 said:
You have to move the utilities before you build the tracks because one is on top of the other. Like building a roof after you have built the walls. Gravity is a nuisance.

More seriously though you also need to maintain utilities and services to homes and businesses, move and work with heavy machinery, move dirt and materials around the site and in most areas maintain traffic flow. Not simple.
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But of course, that's expected, so move the utilities, do the lights, THEN there is track and roadway work one right after the other, and it's only torn up 1 time, not 3 or more.

Personally they should have been extending west in stages, to McEwen, to 124th, to 142nd, 156th, the miz and west ed like they did with the central line as they expanded, none of this 7 years of hell
 
Habibfazil said:
But of course, that's expected, so move the utilities, do the lights, THEN there is track and roadway work one right after the other, and it's only torn up 1 time, not 3 or more.

Personally they should have been extending west in stages, to McEwen, to 124th, to 142nd, 156th, the miz and west ed like they did with the central line as they expanded, none of this 7 years of hell
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So instead you want a Valley Line West LRT that will take 20-30 years to build and will likely become more expensive for each extended section?
 
The city had that problem with extending the Capital Line LRT to the U of A. There were years of fights with the CPR and U of A about building the line across the High Level Bridge. The U of A wanted the LRT underground. Afterwards, the Province reduced municipal infrastructure funding. In some ways, I feel fortunate that the city is able to proceed with LRT construction. There was a lot of resistance back in the 1990’s.
 
The_Cat said:
The city had that problem with extending the Capital Line LRT to the U of A. There were years of fights with the CPR and U of A about building the line across the High Level Bridge. The U of A wanted the LRT underground. Afterwards, the Province reduced municipal infrastructure funding. In some ways, I feel fortunate that the city is able to proceed with LRT construction. There was a lot of resistance back in the 1990’s.
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Agreed.

I know there is a lot of frustration about the delayed opening of the VLSE, justifiably so. (Although sometimes I think it gets a little out of hand.)

I’m just happy that there is as much LRT expansion happening as there is. I’m also happy about the plans for BRT development. (Riding trains is a more enjoyable experience and I would love LRT down Whyte, but I’m optimistic about the value that BRT will add to our transit system.)

The next 8-10 years is going to massively transform our transit system for the better. (More so than anything I’ve seen in my lifetime.)

I have young kids so I am much more focused on the future and the City they will be coming of age in than I am in the month to month happenings (though I like keeping up with that too).

Anyways, just a little forward looking optimism this Friday! Hope everyone has a nice weekend.
 
fromyeg said:
Agreed.

I know there is a lot of frustration about the delayed opening of the VLSE, justifiably so. (Although sometimes I think it gets a little out of hand.)

I’m just happy that there is as much LRT expansion happening as there is. I’m also happy about the plans for BRT development. (Riding trains is a more enjoyable experience and I would love LRT down Whyte, but I’m optimistic about the value that BRT will add to our transit system.)

The next 8-10 years is going to massively transform our transit system for the better. (More so than anything I’ve seen in my lifetime.)

I have young kids so I am much more focused on the future and the City they will be coming of age in than I am in the month to month happenings (though I like keeping up with that too).

Anyways, just a little forward looking optimism this Friday! Hope everyone has a nice weekend.
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We're all caught in this weird limbo of seeing half the city torn up, a bunch of nonfunctional tracks and etc etc bad news about delays. But you are so right.
When all this is done, it will make for a hell of a foundation for a good transit system.

My experience coming from Vancouver - Many people my age grew up in the city in areas with decent or good transit access and relied on it for everything they do, and as far from perfect as it is, when you reach a basic level of quality and kids grow up using it, when they get older they start to feel like spending their hard earned money on a car is a waste, and continue to rely on transit. It's hard to do that without a good transit backbone, but Edmonton is building it. We're not there yet, but we will be, I'm confident of it. We're making all the right moves, and 10 years out this city will be fundamentally more transit accessible than it is today.
 
JuliallThat said:
We're all caught in this weird limbo of seeing half the city torn up, a bunch of nonfunctional tracks and etc etc bad news about delays. But you are so right.
When all this is done, it will make for a hell of a foundation for a good transit system.

My experience coming from Vancouver - Many people my age grew up in the city in areas with decent or good transit access and relied on it for everything they do, and as far from perfect as it is, when you reach a basic level of quality and kids grow up using it, when they get older they start to feel like spending their hard earned money on a car is a waste, and continue to rely on transit. It's hard to do that without a good transit backbone, but Edmonton is building it. We're not there yet, but we will be, I'm confident of it. We're making all the right moves, and 10 years out this city will be fundamentally more transit accessible than it is today.
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It's also worth noting that as much as we love to complain (myself included) about various things with ETS, Edmonton's transit is kind of amazing given the local circumstances. This city is young, with a lot of its urban fabric from after WWII during automobile supremacy, and in a region of the world where the goop used to make the cars go comes from no less. But, on a regular day, our LRT system has better frequencies than the lauded systems of San Francisco and Portland. The buses are pretty well used and extensive too, with a lot of suburban areas having 15min frequencies or better. Our ridership per capita, as a result, blows a lot of American cities out of the park, including many much larger ones with more comprehensive systems. Not only that -- this city started the trend of light rail that's taken hold of North American cities. Edmonton is, by and large, built for driving and it's still, in most cases, the best way to get around the city, but it's not like transit isn't regularly used by many Edmontonians. And that's only going to get better as the city ramps up rapid transit expansion. And among Canadian cities in our weight class, I like our light rail the best. Ottawa's is only semi-functional, while the routing of the C-Train shows how cheap and quick they built it back in the day, and as a result, it's not as well-integrated with major trip generators as it could be (thinking of Chinook Mall, and everything around the UofC/Market Mall/Hospitals).

That doesn't mean I won't complain because we shouldn't be complacent. As much as things are improving, they still could be so much better, and I think by challenging and critiquing what exists is part of how we get there.
 
Gronk! said:
So instead you want a Valley Line West LRT that will take 20-30 years to build and will likely become more expensive for each extended section?
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And where do you get that idea, expand and continue to the next, where does 20 years and higher cost come from?
 
Habibfazil said:
And where do you get that idea, expand and continue to the next, where does 20 years and higher cost come from?
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There is the Capital Line LRT from when the original line was first built in the 1970s. You can also check out the 23rd Ave interchange, or the 50th St overpass that is currently under construction.
 
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