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Post by Alexis Kasperavičius on Aug 23, 2012 14:29:39 GMT -8
Hah! I wish! You don't get that kind of low level light photography without a very good camera, lenses and years of experience. (of which I have none!) With a bit of research, it turns out the guy is a local cinematographer who - I guess - is also a rail fan: Mark Morris Here's his website (linked though his YouTube account): dpmarkmorris.com/dpmarkmorris.com/Welcome.html
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Post by Gokhan on Aug 27, 2012 9:40:31 GMT -8
Construction at the Palms Station continues:
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Post by Gokhan on Aug 29, 2012 9:28:58 GMT -8
Latest situation at the Palms Station. Note that the abutment wall is almost gone: I don't know why they are doing some shoring on the north side of the right-of-way west of the station:
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Post by Gokhan on Aug 29, 2012 17:55:48 GMT -8
As of this evening. You can see that the section of the abutment wall is now cleanly torn away. It also appears that they are going to extend the retaining wall for the Manning on ramp in both directions. That's what the I beams on the north side of the right-of-way seem to be for (for putting the steel-plate forms).
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Post by Gokhan on Sept 4, 2012 13:50:12 GMT -8
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Post by Gokhan on Sept 5, 2012 12:02:10 GMT -8
As usual, some Expo board members are going out of their way to delay the construction and make the project much more costly. This was one of the areas that messed up Phase 1, delaying the project, increasing the costs, and resulting in shoddy work. History repeats: Ridley-Thomas - Wesson motionThis motion needs to be voted down. It is only bringing more bureaucracy and harassing an already-excellent contractor over their hirings.
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Post by Gokhan on Sept 7, 2012 9:29:34 GMT -8
They have started working on the eastern abutment of the Palms Station bridge. This is from yesterday and they have been digging deep today: By the way, I like the new 16:9 aspect option. (This is taken with my HTC One X.) Pictures look much better in widescreen.
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Post by darrell on Sept 7, 2012 18:22:50 GMT -8
By the way, I like the new 16:9 aspect option. (This is taken with my HTC One X.) Pictures look much better in widescreen. I've been cropping my photos at 16:10 for quite a while. I'd love to post wider photos, but Bart in the past insisted we limit to 800 pixels wide. Wonder if that limit has changed?
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Post by Alexis Kasperavičius on Sept 14, 2012 17:56:00 GMT -8
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Post by Gokhan on Sept 14, 2012 18:02:58 GMT -8
Nice indeed.
I hope they preserve the old track in the grass median of Olympic Boulevard and put a sign next to it about its history. I should e-mail Expo Authority about it.
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Post by Alexis Kasperavičius on Sept 18, 2012 14:57:44 GMT -8
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Post by Gokhan on Sept 18, 2012 15:40:36 GMT -8
Hm, is that a footing for a bizarre-looking retaining wall behind Price Self-Storage?
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Post by Alexis Kasperavičius on Sept 20, 2012 15:47:52 GMT -8
Heard a rumor that post holes for overhead catenary start next week. Hmm, wonder where?
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Post by Gokhan on Sept 21, 2012 9:54:27 GMT -8
You can see in the video that they are filling the deepest section of the trench to make it shallower, as it's too deep to hold double tracks without retaining walls.
There is probably some more grading to be done before they can start building the balance-retaining walls and OCS foundations.
The biggest risk to the project right now are the DWP and Edison overhead power lines. They can't build the Venice bridge and other bridges before they are relocated underground. Venice bridge seems to be the biggest problem, as it's under a different contractor (Balfour Beatty Infrastructure) and Skanska/Rados cannot get started in that area before they complete their work and hand it over to them.
Meanwhile, the traffic at National/Palms has been a nightmare, as the street is reduced to single lane day and night.
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Post by John Ryan on Sept 21, 2012 10:07:35 GMT -8
Gokhan, do you know what will happen with the pedestrian bridge - will it have to be reconstructed or will it stay as is?
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Post by Gokhan on Sept 21, 2012 10:15:53 GMT -8
Gokhan, do you know what will happen with the pedestrian bridge - will it have to be reconstructed or will it stay as is? Expo and Skanska/Rados have been saying it will remain in place but let's hope there won't be a last-minute change in the plans and it doesn't get removed for good. Expo Authority has also failed to include it and the I-405 bridge in the CPUC approvals and now they're part of the CPUC reconsideration of the Phase 2 crossings. This pedestrian bridge is certainly heavily used (including by me).
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Post by Alexis Kasperavičius on Sept 27, 2012 6:19:06 GMT -8
New set of pictures today from Dwight. Some of the concrete bridge bases already have their falsework off! It's really moving at a clip. 9/25/2012 Pictures (link)
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Post by Alexis Kasperavičius on Sept 29, 2012 8:50:22 GMT -8
More pictures from yesterday were added by Dwight. - Bridge abutment falsework is now going up in West LA - we're above ground!
- Expo made a presentation on SM yard design.
- The Palms station retaining wall and plaza area are almost ready to pour foundations.
- The Northvale trench has completed adding fill dirt - track bed grading has begun.
It's actually starting to look like a rail line! Link to first picture in series - click NEWER to see more.
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Post by Gokhan on Sept 29, 2012 13:51:46 GMT -8
Wow, did you notice how much they filled the Northvale trench? (Look at the old wooden retaining wall just west of the bridge.) Will the train still be able to squeeze under the pedestrian bridge after that much filling?
Those are actually called concrete forms, not falsework. Falsework is the temporary bridge structure made from I beams and lumber that supports the actual structure for the bridge span. Once they finish the abutments (and the columns if there are any), they will be ready to construct the falsework.
It looks like they are also almost done with grading in certain areas. You can see the track bed clearly cut a couple of feet below, which will be filled with ballast. They first need to construct the ballast retaining walls and OCS foundations though.
Unfortunately though, the DWP and Edison overhead power lines can still delay the construction substantially. Venice Boulevard bridge seems to be the worst case. It's a pity that they started it a long time before anything else but Caltrans approvals (Venice Blvd being a state highway) have been taking forever and there is still no sign of DWP/Edison work there.
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Post by darrell on Sept 29, 2012 16:58:47 GMT -8
Catching up on phase 2 construction photos from September... Let's start with three at Palms-National. Wide shot looking east, 9/21/12. Closer, showing the exposed bridge abutment and temporary shoring. And the view looking back west.
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Post by darrell on Sept 29, 2012 17:11:32 GMT -8
The Northvale trench is showing grading for the track ballast beyond the earlier filling. Wide shot south from the Palms Park pedestrian bridge on 9/22/12. Close up of the freeway tunnel. Wide shot north. The wood retaining wall on the left is a guide to how much has been filled in. Close up, showing the deeper center, I presume for track ballast. Although this seems unusual for railroad construction, which typically has lower sides for drainage. And a backlit bougainvillea shot on 9/17/12.
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Post by darrell on Sept 29, 2012 17:20:31 GMT -8
At Centinela... Looking west, rebar ready for the pour on top of the earlier CIDH footings, 9/16/12. Zoomed in toward Stewart Street. Looking east, waiting for rebar on the CIDH piles. Zoomed in toward Bundy Drive. And Dwight's great video of pumping the concrete on the west side, three days after my photos here (watch in full-screen HD!).
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Post by darrell on Sept 29, 2012 17:25:22 GMT -8
Finally, two on Colorado... Looking east at 9th, with supports for utility trenchs and trees being removed, 9/17/12. What's left of at the Fisher Lumber site at 14th. Everything is cleared beyond the second Fisher building.
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Post by Gokhan on Oct 2, 2012 9:51:44 GMT -8
Nice pic set, Darrell.
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Post by bobdavis on Oct 2, 2012 23:46:55 GMT -8
Translation please, what is CIDH? Cast in drilled hole? Otherwise it looks like it means something in Gaelic. Acronyms aside, it's good to see some real construction. Hallelujah! I have a friend who lives in Santa Monica and already takes the present Expo to work; she will be quite elated to see the second phase up and running.
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Post by carter on Oct 3, 2012 7:56:51 GMT -8
Yesterday it took me 2 hours to get home from downtown to Ocean Park. Hurry up Expo!
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Post by masonite on Oct 3, 2012 8:56:26 GMT -8
Yesterday it took me 2 hours to get home from downtown to Ocean Park. Hurry up Expo! I hear you. Took me 45+ minutes just to get to Culver City in order to take Expo Downtown (which was especially slow itself). They can't finish Phase II fast enough. Too bad, they really just started building the bridges. We have a long long way to go.
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Post by LAofAnaheim on Oct 3, 2012 9:05:50 GMT -8
Yesterday it took me 2 hours to get home from downtown to Ocean Park. Hurry up Expo! Do you ride a bike? I work at the Colorado Center (formerly Yahoo! Center) in Santa Monica and live in downtown LA. It's a 35 minute bike ride to Culver City station and 26 minute Expo ride to Pico station. I find the bike makes me cross the city much faster; especially yesterday when I whizzed past cars totally jammed from Centinela to the 405 freeway on SM boulevard.....it was awesome.
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Post by darrell on Oct 3, 2012 12:13:28 GMT -8
Translation please, what is CIDH? Cast in drilled hole? Correct! Rebar was up yesterday for the east-side abutment at Cloverfield:
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Post by darrell on Oct 3, 2012 20:19:13 GMT -8
Dwight Sturtevant emailed me that the phase 2 column footings are with multiple CIDH piles like the abutments, not the single large CIDH piles of the phase 1 columns. He also passed along this 9/13/12 photo, taken from the Arboretum parking structure, showing excavated locations of two columns and rebar cages for their piles. It makes me wonder if this technique had been used for phase 1 whether the double columns by Ballona Creek could have been single?
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