Green Line / Central Corridor construction thread (archive)

[Silophant]

They're beginning to string caternary from the East Bank Station to the bridge on that side. I'll cut through downtown to the bridge on my way home today and check it out.

[commissioner]

They only have catenary strung on the south side of the bridge as of tuesday.

[ECtransplant]

Once everything is in place construction-wise, how long should testing take before the line is ready to go?

[Silophant]

As of today, there's a single line strung on pulleys from West Bank Station to East Bank Station, over both tracks.

[UptownSport]

Thanks- I remember a post about caternary (aka 'overhead lines') but can't find it.
Still sounds like my suspicions could be correct; they're 'jammin' on this segment to open it early!!!

And I saw more large, plastic covered objects stenciled 'DO NOT HUMP' at the Franklin Train Barn

[Didier]

I disagree.

Disagree that it was supposed to be a 'grand avenue' or that a wall(s) down middle of of the road is unattractive or both?

In the area where I live, near the Westgate station, University had turned from a busy, ugly road into something much more manageable. The other direction of traffic is basically a separate road. So I think the separation was a huge improvement.

Of course there would have been some separation anyway due to train tracks running down the middle of the road, but not as much.

As an aside, some of the medians surrounding the tracks are very nicely done.

[Wedgeguy]

If what I heard from one of the supervisors of the LRT is correct, there will be some summer testing of trains into the U of M area, how far I don't know. But they are required to work to make sure that there are no electrical or magnetic fields isssues by one of the research buildings next to the tracks. They have to run a number of test trains for they can measure for this.

[David Greene]

This explains why it looks like most of the catenary and overhead wire is done from the Blue Line junction to at least just across the bridge.

I drove University from Huron all the way east on Friday and most of the wiring looks nearly complete to just west of Snelling. Not much in place east of Snelling. Some of it looked recently strung and not completely in place but quite a lot more looked finished than I expected.

[LRV Op Dude]

[chimpls]

Question: In this short video (above) the rep. from the Met Council quoted fares at 2.25 for non-peak and 2.50 for peak? was that just a verbal error or will fares be increasing when the new line comes into service?

[talindsay]

Given that she said, "I think that's right" after she quoted the prices, I think she just misspoke. Given how fare increases are decided, it's not possible for her to *know* anything that we don't; while it's possible that they've been *considering* such an increase, the specific amounts wouldn't be mentioned in this context. Also, there's currently a 50¢ difference between peak and off-peak, and I can't imagine they would reduce that difference even as they raise prices.

[UptownSport]

took a walk to WAB bridge last night, plenty of shiny rail equipment that evidently is used to install overhead lines.
electrical cables are up, station is lit up like Christmas-

Found out previous line ("Interurban") had dedicated lanes down University Center. I don't know if it was as obtrusive as some areas on central.

[UptownSport]

http://finance-commerce.com/transit/201 ... continues/

93% complete. Intermittent road closures ahead for downtown St. Paul and Wash Ave trench

And now, 94%

[mattaudio]

Anyone know how much of the total project budget was spent on reconstruction of University Ave or downtown St. Paul streets unrelated to actually providing LRT service?

[MNdible]

Anyone know how much of the total project budget was spent on reconstruction of University Ave or downtown St. Paul streets unrelated to actually providing LRT service?

Well, it's not really unrelated, because you couldn't have just plopped down the LRT in the middle of the existing University Avenue and called it a day. It wasn't a greenfield site. Now, was the existing University Avenue tired and needing some love prior to LRT? Yes, certainly. But the LRT really did require a complete reconstruction that wouldn't have been required, but for the LRT.

[mulad]

Cripes! You've got to be kidding me!

[RailBaronYarr]

Might be helpful to compare a per-mile cost of completely re-grading a similar ROW street and sidewalk, things that would have been done for most of the corridor within the next 5 years or so anyway. Many pedestrian amenities specific to getting people to the middle of the street to board, etc etc shouldn't be included (and wouldn't in a normal project). Pull out a % of the example cost since LRT was placed in the center and that would give a decent estimate. A "complete street" redo is estimated at ~$5M per mile for an 80' ROW with sidewalks and bike lanes completely re-done.

[Tom H.]

Considering that sections of University / Washington clearly had not been rebuilt in 60+ years (as proven by the fact that friggin' streetcar rails were pulled up in parts), I don't think it's unfair to say that at least some sizable fraction of the budget covered deferred maintenance that should have been covered by other funding sources. I think the legitimate question to ask is "How much would it have cost to rebuild the University Ave streetscape to LRT-ready specs (i.e., with an empty, LRT-sized median)?" and compare that to the full CCLRT cost.

[mullen]

there will be testing of cars under their own power in the "U" area beginning tomorrow night. (per an mpr twitter note i saw today)

[mullen]

this is parochialism at it's finest.
http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/blog/sheld ... te-project