Toronto Union Station Revitalization | ?m | ?s | City of Toronto | NORR

Union station guesstimate

35% over budget
~20 weeks late

I'm pretty sure that there's still room for the DRL with the current expansion. I don't think the streetcar loop will have any effect on the DRL.

EDIT: If the timer starts right now, I'm putting it at 45 weeks late instead.
 
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condovo said:
^^ Okay. So could current expansions plans accommodate a DRL?
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There have been suggestions that the DRL won't run through Union because of the existing congestion and lack of space. Not a bad idea, really. I could see it linking at King or Queen.

18 months late, 43% over budget.
 
It would be smart to at least design the station so that its possible to link it well to another subway station in the future. DRL may not stop there, but odds are something will in the future (very long term maybe). Might as well keep the possibility open.
 
What happened?? The tender results came out showing Aecon had the lowest bid and no annoucement has happened since. There is no indication a contract has been signed yet and this is something that would get printed in a news release since it would significantly impact Aecon and general public interest. Uuugh. This was supposed to get under construction by July based on projections in the spring but now it is mid-September.
 
EnviroTO said:
What happened?? The tender results came out showing Aecon had the lowest bid and no annoucement has happened since. There is no indication a contract has been signed yet and this is something that would get printed in a news release since it would significantly impact Aecon and general public interest. Uuugh. This was supposed to get under construction by July based on projections in the spring but now it is mid-September.
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Assuming you're talking about the TTC's tender, it's now advertised as having an October 8 deadline. Aecon has not been listed as a document taker.
 
EnviroTO said:
What happened?? The tender results came out showing Aecon had the lowest bid and no annoucement has happened since. There is no indication a contract has been signed yet and this is something that would get printed in a news release since it would significantly impact Aecon and general public interest. Uuugh. This was supposed to get under construction by July based on projections in the spring but now it is mid-September.
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More like year end, early 2010

There a lot of behind the scene work has to take place as well scheduling thing with GO itself as how platforms will be taken out of service before work can start.

There is no need for GO or any company to make announcement to tell the public who got what for what unless they chose to do so or is require.
 
EnviroTO said:
No, I'm referring to the GO/Metrolinx tender which finished in August.

http://dcnonl.com/cgi-bin/top10.pl?...cb86f654c2f0&projectid=9089809&region=ontario
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Ah, a fun new resource. Excellent.


drum118 said:
More like year end, early 2010

There a lot of behind the scene work has to take place as well scheduling thing with GO itself as how platforms will be taken out of service before work can start.

There is no need for GO or any company to make announcement to tell the public who got what for what unless they chose to do so or is require.
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To be fair to EnviroTO, I think an announcement is reasonable to expect in this case.

For one, I can't imagine there's any major engineering/construction firm out there who wouldn't fire off a press release when they landed a ~$200m contract to carry out work on what will arguably be the highest-visibility reno project in the country.

But also bear in mind that Metrolinx and the TTC, as public-sector bodies, are bound to a much higher standard of transparency than other corporations. If I owned a big design/build firm and we were to bid on building, say, Bell a new office block in Markham, they certainly wouldn't be releasing details of who requested documents and who submitted bids and for how much.

I think it's safe to say we'll get suitable hoopla from both sides once the contract is awarded.
 
What I don't understand is why they got Norman Foster to design up at York U and Sheppard West (actually, the latter might have been another big architect) yet no architect seems to have been hired for the much busier and more central Union station.
 
jwill said:
Norr is a local architecture and engineering firm. Nothing at all like Foster.
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Yes, but it's an entirely different situation. This is the restoration of a historic building coupled with the creation of new space within the building. Further, the most notable areas of new space - the new GO concourses - will be owned by GO and not the City and presumably they will bring their own designers in for the concourses.

I suspect that a combination architectural/engineering shop was by far the better choice given the nature of the work.

And plus, the question above was NOT "Why wasn't a big-name architect chosen for Union?" The question was "why hasn't an architect been chosen?". One has and in fact will be completing design work very shortly.
 
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You can never be sure an architect is working on the project when you hire an architecture and engineering firm. The fact that its an historic building makes an even better case for hiring a good architect. There are plenty in Toronto.

From what I've seen of all the Union Station projects there is a lack of good architecture. Possible exception is the new shed.
 
jwill said:
You can never be sure an architect is working on the project when you hire an architecture and engineering firm. The fact that its an historic building makes an even better case for hiring a good architect. There are plenty in Toronto.
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Well, there is an architectural/engineering firm on it, that's all we know, anything else is speculation.
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