Green Line / Central Corridor construction thread (archive)

[woofner]

Hyperbole aside, it would probably just take a few thousand dollars to build sidewalks along the edges of 50' wide Bradford St.

I doubt even that will be necessary, though, since brewery taproom peak hours don't tend to overlap much with those of industrial deliveries. Speaking as someone who spends way more time than he'd like walking around the North Loop, even heavy semi traffic on side streets is much more tolerable than heavy car traffic for walking with, because semi drivers are much more likely to actually pay attention to their surroundings (there are exceptions of course).

[LRV Op Dude]

They pulled a LRV on to the Green Line tonight.

[UptownSport]

Tracks work! Yeah!

[mplser]

like how? literally pulling it with a truck?

[the_elop]

With a truck, yes. Video: http://lettherebelightrail.blogspot.com ... -paul.html

[LRV Op Dude]

The train is pulled by the [url=ttp://twincitiestransit.blogspot.com/2012/09/brandt.html]Brandt[/url]

[commissioner]

Is there certain times that they are testing the trains on the Green Line?

[twincitizen]

A westward look at the public plaza today. I really wanted to go around the fence and have a seat while eating a Big 10 sub. Sadly, no tow-train came through during the 45 min or so I was biking around campus.

The Campbell Mithun tower sits perfectly on the horizon from this vantage point.

[twincitizen]

Pioneer Press took some great photos: http://photos.twincities.com/2013/04/28 ... lled-in/#1

[spearson]

Reading these articles, it seems so odd that there is still a year plus to go, when it's already 92% completed. Is it really going to take a year to finish the electrical grid, finish up loose ends and test the system? Or is the percent completed just misleading?

[twincitizen]

Perhaps the % complete is calculated by dollars spent? Or percent complete is construction only, not including testing time?

Plus it's going to look really, really good on behalf of the met council and public transit in general if they are able to put out press releases a year from now announcing "GREEN LINE OPENS A MONTH EARLY AND UNDER BUDGET!" By saying they want it open by the All-Star Game in July, they have given themselves plenty of wiggle room in case something goes wrong. Barring any unforseen events, I expect this thing to open immediately after finals week at the U.

[RailBaronYarr]

Or perhaps it includes pre-project stuff like all the planning? Who knows?? It's a fun number but like nearly any % complete statuses pretty useless. Got tons of projects at work I see listed at 90% complete for 9 months before finally launching. Or software installation %/bars that hang with 2% to go for 10 minutes. Whatever.

[talindsay]

The project will be 100% complete some time this summer; they're leaving a lot of time for testing and are intentionally being fuzzy on the start date. The percentage complete is on the phase we would consider "heavy construction" - it started when they started real work and completes when the heavy construction contracts are complete. Testing isn't part of that, by my understanding.

Personally I don't think they'll really test for nine months - I'm betting that if they don't run into any unexpected glitches, and if the testing goes as planned, the line will open at the end of winter in 2014.

[LRV Op Dude]

Reading these articles, it seems so odd that there is still a year plus to go, when it's already 92% completed. Is it really going to take a year to finish the electrical grid, finish up loose ends and test the system? Or is the percent completed just misleading?

Yes, there is a lot to go into the LRT system. I bet they don't have all the substation in place not to mention the hundreds and hundreds thousand of miles of wiring. I am not just talking about the overhead catenary. There are lots and lots of wiring under the track that has to be run. That is just to get it ready to have the LRV running by itself on the line. Than there is the testing. That have to make sure all the programing works in the new SCADA system. You know how that is, one thing wrong than they they have to look through millions of lines code to correct the problem.

You guys are eager now just wait until you see LRV running up and down the line. You want the system to be SAFE. So there will be lots of testing just going back and forth. They have to make sure the bar signals are sync together. Make sure the real time schedule works. Training of the operators. And tons of others thing go right.



It sounds like they will have trains running late this year. Goal is to be up and running by All-star break in 2014.

Be patient. You want to have a LRT line that works and that is safe.

[LRV Op Dude]

OK, I have been thinking about this for a while and thought it would be a fun thing to do. Maybe someone can offer a prize if someone gets it correct? If there is a prize I will opt out. Don't want anyone thinking I had inside information which is not the case.

Guess the date that the Green Line starts service?

[talindsay]

Tax day 2014: April 15.

[papazim]

May 24th - Saturday of Memorial Day weekend.

[mamundsen]

I have always been guessing 4/1/14. Have a few days to run before extra load of Twins games.

[UptownSport]

I think we could get it going much sooner

[trkaiser]

June 26, 2014 - exactly one decade after Hiawatha opened.