Toronto Queens Quay & Water's Edge Revitalization | ?m | ?s | Waterfront Toronto

well one thing to remember is they dig a hole - and it fills with water. There was one case where even with two pumps it still filled nearly to the top... and I also see workers every day. The entire site runs from Yonge to past Spadina.
 
This was posted by Steve Munro in response to a comment on his blog
At this point, the plans are still for streetcar service to return at the end of August. The controlling factor is the intersection at Spadina which may be one of the last pieces to be completed. That said, it is my understanding that it would actually be done sooner, around the end of June or early July begging the question of whether streetcars could return for August at least on the 509. (Spadina will be closed at Dundas for track work and could not reopen until late August no matter what happens on Queens Quay.)

The TTC is quite suspicious that Waterfront Toronto will actually finish the work on the advertised schedule, but given lead times for operators signing up for work, a decision to schedule streetcars rather than buses for August must occur in early June
 
Well - they are now laying the first set of rails for the street car near Simcoe street tomorrow night, so the rebuild is now definitely underway.
 
Well - they are now laying the first set of rails for the street car near Simcoe street tomorrow night, so the rebuild is now definitely underway.
Here's the WT announcement:

TTC crews will begin working on Queens Quay overnight this week to move rail into position for the rebuild of the streetcar corridor.

Crews will mobilize to the rail storage location on Queens Quay East at Freeland Street tonight – April 1. Crews will work overnight to prepare the rail to be moved. On Wednesday, April 2, crews will move the first four strings of rail from the Freeland Street location to the newly poured concrete track bed just west of Lower Simcoe Street for installation. This work will occur overnight into Thursday morning.

Rail will continue to be moved in sections over the next couple of months as the rebuild of the TTC Streetcar corridor continues on Queens Quay.
 
Digging the area for the base as well forming it and pouring concrete is a very fast phase. Placement of ties will take time since they have to be level first.

Once this is done, then the rail that has been place on either side of the ROW will be place on the ties and anchor down onto the ties.

If the ROW is longer than 600', splicing of rail will take place and this will be the case using 4 length of rail. Once that is done, then gaging and alignment take place.

The next step is to weld the grounding cable to the rail and the start wrapping the rails with the rubber protection.

Pouring of the first coat of concrete will take place to anchor the rail and ties to the base as one single pour.

Since TTC main contractor for doing TTC track work is doing this project, thing will move fast. The top coat of concrete will done either as a one pour or 3 pour as it various from project to project. Usual, 3 pour is done by this contractor as it has better control in getting the grove in for the wheels of the streetcars.

A couple of feet at the end of the section is not pour to allow the jointing of the next section and splicing of it.

If there is no stopping for the contractor, he could have the work done by the end of May including the missing section for Spadina Loop.

Lets hope things are layout correctly so there is no St Clair problem here.
 
This afternoon, from the Waterfront Toronto construction webcams
http://waterfront.3wm.ca/index.php

165727_zoom.jpg
 
Now that the track will be on the south side instead of in the middle of the road, does it reduce the amount of traffic signals it has to go through, or improve the transit line in any way?
 
signal priority will be a lot easier as you only have to deal with the much lower traffic levels for the southern entrances. It won't remove any lights however.
 
The big win from a transit perspective is the removal of left turns across the ROW. Most of the accidents on Queens Quay West were caused by people who for whatever reason didn't notice the large red vehicle coming up behind them on their left as the foolishly turned in front of them. The number of people who ignored the tracks and curbs damaging their car and causing accidents was higher than you would expect.
 
Digging the area for the base as well forming it and pouring concrete is a very fast phase. Placement of ties will take time since they have to be level first.

Once this is done, then the rail that has been place on either side of the ROW will be place on the ties and anchor down onto the ties.

If the ROW is longer than 600', splicing of rail will take place and this will be the case using 4 length of rail. Once that is done, then gaging and alignment take place.

The next step is to weld the grounding cable to the rail and the start wrapping the rails with the rubber protection.

Pouring of the first coat of concrete will take place to anchor the rail and ties to the base as one single pour.

Since TTC main contractor for doing TTC track work is doing this project, thing will move fast. The top coat of concrete will done either as a one pour or 3 pour as it various from project to project. Usual, 3 pour is done by this contractor as it has better control in getting the grove in for the wheels of the streetcars.

A couple of feet at the end of the section is not pour to allow the jointing of the next section and splicing of it.

If there is no stopping for the contractor, he could have the work done by the end of May including the missing section for Spadina Loop.

Lets hope things are layout correctly so there is no St Clair problem here.

Queens Quay is mostly, if not all, landfill. Therefore, the base could be unstable. They have to do extra work to reinforce the base.

f1244_it07431.jpg

f1231_it00531.jpg
 
The last section to be done will be at Spadina loop as they are still working on utilities at that intersection and it is more complicated than the straight (tangent) track that really is going in at a good pace but even so the TTC can start putting up overhead from the mouth of the portal at Bay right up to the bridge on QQE as soon as the track is in place. They have already just about finished the overhead on Spadina. As usual Steve Munro has a good update with photos on his blog. http://stevemunro.ca/
 
It's really nice to see some progress on the track installation, and it looks like with the warm weather the pace of the granite installation has picked up too.

Back a few pages I seem to recall it being mentioned that not all condos in the area put up the funds to have the granite work extend past the city owned section of the sidewalk. Does anyone here know which buildings are not participating?
 
Does anyone know the future plans around 320 Queens Quay West?

It's currently a large parking lot, though I doubt it will turn into a condo development since that would block out the iconic view of the SkyDome contrasting the CN Tower.
 
Does anyone know the future plans around 320 Queens Quay West?

It's currently a large parking lot, though I doubt it will turn into a condo development since that would block out the iconic view of the SkyDome contrasting the CN Tower.
I think it belongs to Harbourfront so it MAY become something 'nice' one day - or sold off to raise money!
 

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