Toronto Woodbine Station Improvements | ?m | 1s

[sterdeus]

Thanks for the update nfitz. I'm glad to see this as well since I'm one of the jay walkers. Every morning and evening I encounter other people like me who jay walk and I would imagine a large portion of the foot traffic to Woodbine station is people doing the same, whether closer to Danforth or some part north.

 

[ShonTron]

Nice. I guess it's too late for Dufferin or Castle Frank (which fustratingly have new exit-only accesses where second entrances would be very useful).

 

[DarnDirtyApe]

Finally someone at the TTC got a clue! I also jay walk across Woodbine every day and was incredulous that they couldn't squeeze a turnstile in to the new building.

The new exit Castle Frank is totally ridiculous!

 

[interchange42]

Earlier today:

42

 

[nfitz]

Two years later the end is in sight. The main station is starting to look more finished, especially with new signage and finishes going up inside.

And the second entrance/exit is progressing!

 

[TransitBart]

Awesome.

 

[lead82]

It's ridiculous how long these small projects take. 90% of the time nothing gets done at construction sites.

 

[nfitz]

It's ridiculous how long these small projects take. 90% of the time nothing gets done at construction sites.

Small projects? It's an almost $20 million project. We discussed the bids on the previous page - there were 6 bids ranging from $19.7 million to $22.4 million, all from large and some very large contractors.

It's private for-profit construction. If nothing is being done, it's to save money. (though likely they are working somewhere that can't be seen - I certainly see changes when I go in, every week or two).

Could it be done faster? Probably - but that's not the criteria. The primary criteria is cost. TTC has no real cost in it taking a year or so longer. Compare to road construction or building construction, where there are lost opportunity costs and congestion costs.

If people want to pay higher fares and taxes you might see more work happening. Alternatively, you might just have less projects.

 

[lead82]

$20M is a small construction project these days. I understand that the criteria is cost, but in my experience, having a crew there and not working as productively as possible raises the cost. Dragging out the timeline creates more overhead to be maintained over the entire project, and costs of salaries and inflation for material costs go up along the way. These projects can be done in 1-2 years if the TTC has bothered to add a timeline to these projects rather than just base it on primarily on costs.

 

[smallspy]

$20M is a small construction project these days. I understand that the criteria is cost, but in my experience, having a crew there and not working as productively as possible raises the cost. Dragging out the timeline creates more overhead to be maintained over the entire project, and costs of salaries and inflation for material costs go up along the way. These projects can be done in 1-2 years if the TTC has bothered to add a timeline to these projects rather than just base it on primarily on costs.

It's not just cost. There's also the not-inconsiderable issue of keeping the station and surrounding neighbourhood open and functioning while the construction is ongoing. A significant portion of the work is staging to allow for that.

Also, this project is going to take 3 years from the time the shovels started on the early work necessary to stage the project until they flip the final switch to turn everything on. That's not too far off of your projection of "1-2 years".

Dan
Toronto, Ont.

 

[nfitz]

Almost looks ready to open! Some of the inside temporary walls are coming down. You can see the entrance now to the eastbound elevator from the mezzanine (gosh, seems very narrow walkway connecting the new to the old - hopefully wide enough for all accessible vehicles - perhaps just an illusion though).

 

[nfitz]

I took a look around Woodbine station this evening. Looks done to me, not sure what they are waiting for. Certainly the second entrance/exit looks ready - though I assume they want to open in one shot.

Here's the new entrance across Woodbine from the existing station. The new gates are installed inside. New bike lanes too.

This is the south elevator in the mezzanine. For once the tiles seem to match quite well!

And here's the south elevator at platform level. You can see some of the new ceiling tiles too.

The new exit on the north (westbound) platform to the second entrance/exit. This should be a faster way into the station, with less wandering around inside.

The south (eastbound) platform stairs up to the second exit.

The south elevator in the main entrance, looking west. I guess there's a bit of signage to do still. If I'd stood a big further to the left, you'd be able to see the new second entrance through the window to the right of the elevator. And some more ceiling tiles.

The ceiling tiles look quite good in the mezzanine. I don't think I've ever seen this station without missing metal pieces of ceiling before!

 

[TransitBart]

The only crazy part of this is that you posted in June (and it looked open or ready) and it's still not.

 

[nfitz]

The only crazy part of this is that you posted in June (and it looked open or ready) and it's still not.

The new building did. The bottom of the stairs was still boarded off at that time. And I'm not sure about the interior finishes. The elevators certainly were still underway, and the new ceiling wasn't in.

I was just looking at the website - says Summer 2017. That gives them about 2-3 days! Though the CEO report indicates it's always been 3rd quarter 2017, with Coxwell the following quarter (now that looks like they've got a lot of work to do still!)

 

[Johnny Au]

Apparently, there has been a surplus of green wall tiles for the station improvements, perhaps salvaged from the old tunnel to the streetcars, as well as Dufferin station, which no longer uses the green tiles. It means that Chester, St. George, and Runnymede have extra green tiles as well.