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Post by wad on Mar 7, 2010 5:35:49 GMT -8
This Culver City plan from an Expo community meeting poster shows most of the columns. There's a single column on the far right - indicated by the aqua arrow pointing down - just west of National. The aerial structure splits in two there, and you can see three pairs of columns between that one and Washington. I'm curious, where will the buses be staged at this station?
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Post by darrell on Mar 10, 2010 16:24:51 GMT -8
I'm curious, where will the buses be staged at this station? I don't know. The original at-grade parking plan that involved a bus loop evolved into subterranean parking as part of new TOD at / next to the site.
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Adrian Auer-Hudson
Junior Member
Supporter of "Expo Light Rail - Enabler for the Digital Coast".
Posts: 65
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Post by Adrian Auer-Hudson on Mar 10, 2010 16:27:51 GMT -8
I have always assumed that Culver City would have stops on Washington Blvd, and the MTA on Venice Blvd.
Based on the above diagram it appears that the most of the area between the two boulevards will be occupied by surface parking. I was rather hoping for something less sterile.
IMHO, the space beneath Expo and the adjacent stretch of Exposition Blvd could usefully become a pedestrian plaza. It is a natural meeting place. I would like to see a decoratively paved area with benches and trees.
Small retail outlets could sell coffee, herbal tea, a tie to the guy who forgot to wear one, maybe a pair of nylons to the gal whose ran leaving the bus, and of course a news stand.
Parking should IMHO be subterranean.
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Post by darrell on Mar 10, 2010 16:39:19 GMT -8
For something a little different, the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook state park had some beautiful views this afternoon that included Expo Line construction. Part of the panorama. The Hollywood sign, Griffith Observatory (upper right), and Ballona Creek bridge under construction (detail below). The La Cienega bridge (falsework is down from its eastern span, not that you can see it here). The La Brea bridge, with some buildings that happened to be in the background.
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Post by rajacobs on Mar 10, 2010 18:09:12 GMT -8
Beautiful pictures! ...I noticed, this afternoon, that in the storage yard along the Phase II ROW north of Venice and east of Bagley, finally, some catenary poles were being loaded on trucks for transit somewhere along the Phase I ROW.
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Post by bobdavis on Mar 11, 2010 0:18:16 GMT -8
That's an impressive bridge! What kind of camera were you using? I hope that when this finally gets to opening day, the surviving Pacific Electric and Southern Pacific train crew members who rumbled along the tired old "Air Line" track in their diesel switchers will be invited to ride the official "first train".
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Post by darrell on Mar 11, 2010 11:32:01 GMT -8
That's an impressive bridge! What kind of camera were you using? I hope that when this finally gets to opening day, the surviving Pacific Electric and Southern Pacific train crew members who rumbled along the tired old "Air Line" track in their diesel switchers will be invited to ride the official "first train". That would be nice! My camera is the new Canon Rebel T2i, 18 Mpixel, with a 15-85 mm lens (24-126mm 35mm equivalent). The wide shot was at 15; the telephotos at 85. The long shots' sharpness reflects both cropping and downsizing. That's ok for 800-pixel-wide images, but I'm looking to also buy a longer lens.
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Post by Gokhan on Mar 11, 2010 13:38:53 GMT -8
My camera is the new Canon Rebel T2i, 18 Mpixel, with a 15-85 mm lens (24-126mm 35mm equivalent). The wide shot was at 15; the telephotos at 85. The long shots' sharpness reflects both cropping and downsizing. That's ok for 800-pixel-wide images, but I'm looking to also buy a longer lens. Wow, SLR, nice! You've got really serious, Darrell! We are waiting for more impressive pictures with your new SLR!
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Post by Gokhan on Mar 11, 2010 13:42:14 GMT -8
Now, all supports in Culver City are either finished or their steel cages are erected. The only ones that are not finished are between Washington and National but, again, their cages are put in, and they should be done in a few weeks.
We are also waiting for the abutment near Wesley St to be built. The work on the superstructure by Balfour Beatty Infrastructure will start early April.
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Post by Gokhan on Mar 16, 2010 16:10:17 GMT -8
Another first is happening with the Expo construction. This weekend the Vermont and Exposition intersection will be reconstructed as part of the light-rail construction. This is the first of 25 intersection reconstructions. The construction is approaching 70% complete but we are still more than a year away from 100% completion.
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Post by darrell on Mar 16, 2010 20:23:53 GMT -8
Alan Weeks emailed a new set of construction photos today, taken Saturday (3/13), of the reconstruction of the Blue Line tracks along Flower Street north of Venice Boulevard over the weekend. This project went from Pico Blvd. South to Venice Blvd. Every thing was removed and replaced in 48 hours. They finished around 6 am Monday morning. They added a double crossover just South of Pico Blvd. I don't know how many more blocks they will do on Flower St. Then comes the really big job at Flower Street and Washington Blvd. where all the new Special Work switches and frogs will be installed. Here are crops of three, just north of Venice Blvd.:
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Post by Justin Walker on Mar 16, 2010 22:03:52 GMT -8
Very cool action shots! Here's what they left behind on Monday: Overview shot: Detail shots:
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Post by Gokhan on Mar 16, 2010 23:37:16 GMT -8
Balfour Beatty Rail is doing an excellent job. If only Flatiron was as good as them, we would be riding this line by now. Unfortunately Flatiron is 58 weeks behind schedule and the number of weeks is consistently growing every month.
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Post by Jason Saunders on Mar 17, 2010 8:46:05 GMT -8
If the tracks were in the middle the street there would not be so many driveway crossings. Very cool action shots! Here's what they left behind on Monday: Overview shot:
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Post by Gokhan on Mar 17, 2010 11:10:09 GMT -8
If the tracks were in the middle the street there would not be so many driveway crossings. There are only two (21st and 22nd) driveway crossings on the Expo Line. How many are on the Blue Line Flower St section?
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Post by Jason Saunders on Mar 17, 2010 12:56:55 GMT -8
If the tracks were in the middle the street there would not be so many driveway crossings. There are only two (21st and 22nd) driveway crossings on the Expo Line. How many are on the Blue Line Flower St section? Using Google Street View, I count 12 driveway crossings north of Washington. I'm sure there is a logical reason why it is not center aligned. Perhaps because traffic is one way and this keeps cars together.
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Post by Jason Saunders on Mar 17, 2010 13:22:48 GMT -8
I have always assumed that Culver City would have stops on Washington Blvd, and the MTA on Venice Blvd. Based on the above diagram it appears that the most of the area between the two boulevards will be occupied by surface parking. I was rather hoping for something less sterile. IMHO, the space beneath Expo and the adjacent stretch of Exposition Blvd could usefully become a pedestrian plaza. It is a natural meeting place. I would like to see a decoratively paved area with benches and trees. Small retail outlets could sell coffee, herbal tea, a tie to the guy who forgot to wear one, maybe a pair of nylons to the gal whose ran leaving the bus, and of course a news stand. Parking should IMHO be subterranean. I believe the parking lot is interim until something like this is built: www.urbanpartnersllc.com/projectDetail.php?id=8Anyone have more details?
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Post by darrell on Mar 17, 2010 14:04:59 GMT -8
Thanks for the "after" shots, Justin! They also raise a question: will this section end up as ties on ballast, or do the red plastic pieces surrounding the switch parts foreshadow a slab being added on top of the ties? It's also unusual that the switches' ties are concrete, rather than wood as is commonly used even in track with concrete ties.
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Post by Gokhan on Mar 17, 2010 16:18:51 GMT -8
The new tracks are looking good. I prefer ballasted tracks. They look better and are easier to maintain, offer better drainage, and help keep people and cars away from them. But City of LA wanted embedded tracks on Flower and USC wanted embedded tracks on Exposition. Perhaps City of LA think they can run emergency vehicles on them if needed. And University of Steel and Concrete likes concrete and wanted Exposition to look like a concrete continuum. The new campus center to be opened this Fall boasts a giant outdoor concrete plaza. How refreshing, isn't it?
When are we going to see your SLR pics of the Expo Line, Darrell?
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Post by bobdavis on Mar 17, 2010 18:54:18 GMT -8
I was at Flower and Washington Monday after a "first day" ride on Angels Flight. Looks like it will be a while before they're ready to take the big step and cut in the "specialwork" to connect Blue to Expo. I had a mistaken impression that the junction was going to be done in the next few weeks, but the present weekend outages appear to be "preliminaries" rather than the "main event".
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Post by darrell on Mar 17, 2010 22:26:39 GMT -8
Another milestone! Here are five of the first seven catenary poles standing, on both sides of the Denker crossing, this evening. Same photo, different crop, 50% of original size (you can do a lot with 18 MP originals!):
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Post by Gokhan on Mar 18, 2010 0:12:10 GMT -8
The dusk pictures came out very nice with your new SLR. I like the way the poles look. They are nice and shiny and look expensive. I don't think they would look bad in the Colorado Avenue median.
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Post by rubbertoe on Mar 18, 2010 6:45:55 GMT -8
Darrell, Way to go with the first catenary pics! I drove down the ROW last Saturday to Crenshaw hoping to grab the honor, but there were no poles up on that stretch up yet.
Congrats on the new camera too. Those dusk pictures from a page or two back were a really good comparison. I guess the next milestone would be the catenary wire installation.
RT
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Post by transitfan on Mar 18, 2010 8:34:41 GMT -8
I was at Flower and Washington Monday after a "first day" ride on Angels Flight. Looks like it will be a while before they're ready to take the big step and cut in the "specialwork" to connect Blue to Expo. I had a mistaken impression that the junction was going to be done in the next few weeks, but the present weekend outages appear to be "preliminaries" rather than the "main event". I apologize if this has been addressed before, but will the Flower/Washington junction be a wye (i.e. track connection from n/b Blue to s/b Expo and vice versa) or strictly north to north and south to south?
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Post by Gokhan on Mar 18, 2010 10:27:20 GMT -8
From south to north, it's straight track only, unless they've changed the design. In order to make a from-south-to-east connection, they would have the acquire the southeastern corner of the intersection, like the northeastern corner is acquired. I don't think this has been done.
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Post by bobdavis on Mar 18, 2010 13:09:12 GMT -8
I would guess that one of the reasons for adding crossovers near the junction might be because making a wye out of the intersection would be more expensive and time consuming.
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Post by rajacobs on Mar 18, 2010 16:05:25 GMT -8
...Expensive, time consuming, considerable added cost given the need to purchase property, and an assessment that ease of movement for Expoline eastbound to Blue Line southbound and vice versa will not be an immediate requirement.
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Post by darrell on Mar 18, 2010 17:43:37 GMT -8
I apologize if this has been addressed before, but will the Flower/Washington junction be a wye (i.e. track connection from n/b Blue to s/b Expo and vice versa) or strictly north to north and south to south? Here's a track plan detail from the phase 1 Final EIS/EIR (Appendix A PE Drawings, page 66). Although from what we're seeing being built on Flower, that double-crossover may not be accurate.
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Post by darrell on Mar 18, 2010 19:43:10 GMT -8
Here are more photos from yesterday evening's beautiful light. Forms run the full length of the Ballona Creek bridge. The retained fill section west of La Cienega is nearly finished. And results in a new Westside landmark, The Great Jefferson Wall. This earlier 3/9/10 photo contrasts with when dirt trucks could still enter by the west abutment. This detail shows the falsework east of La Cienega before it is removed later this month. And more falsework is down around these La Brea columns, showing the raw cast concrete. I presume they'll jackhammer and grind it into a smoother curved form?
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Post by darrell on Mar 18, 2010 19:58:57 GMT -8
Finally, I finally got to see the Flower Street Blue Line reconstruction for myself last night. The Blue Line was single-tracking while rail rebooting was being done on the east track south of Pico. The reconstruction was about the southern half-block between Venice and Pico, to add a double-crossover. You can see the existing Blue Line slab on the front of the photo, and the nearest new track switch on the right. (This SLR takes night photos nicely.) Here's Alan Weeks' new photo from about the same place. He wrote: On Wednesday we went back to finish the line from downtown to Culver City. It seems that on Saturday when I was there I did not get a true picture of what was taking place. Because both Pico and Venice were blocked off I thought they were re-building the track from Pico to Venice. Yesterday we could see what actually happened. They had to rebuild a half block section to add two crossovers. I had thought they might have used a Scissors crossover but they used two separate crossovers separated by some distance. Southbound there is a facing point crossover and some distance farther there is a trailing point crossover. A lot of flexibility there.
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