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Post by joshuanickel on Mar 12, 2014 11:51:11 GMT -8
Falsework has been removed from the east end of the Palms Station platform. You can now see the platform and where it ends on the right. Was this the last falsework along the line?There is a some falsework still at Bundy Station that is in the process of coming down and the Pico Bridge Falsework is still up.
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Post by Gokhan on Mar 13, 2014 11:17:21 GMT -8
From now on, I will refer to the Venice Boulevard Bridge by its full official name -- "State Route 187 Up Bridge No. 53 - 3070L". Understood?
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Post by rubbertoe on Mar 13, 2014 14:40:55 GMT -8
From now on, I will refer to the Venice Boulevard Bridge by its full official name -- "State Route 187 Up Bridge No. 53 - 3070L". Understood? Gokhan, I would expect nothing less from you . Maybe Mark Ridley Thomas will recommend at the next Metro board meeting that he would like to have the bridge name changed to " State Route 187 / Garcetti / Obama / Thomas Up Bridge No. 53 - 3070L", since he is so fond of renaming things, especially stations... RT
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Post by bzcat on Mar 13, 2014 15:07:54 GMT -8
From now on, I will refer to the Venice Boulevard Bridge by its full official name -- "State Route 187 Up Bridge No. 53 - 3070L". Understood? Gokhan, I would expect nothing less from you . Maybe Mark Ridley Thomas will recommend at the next Metro board meeting that he would like to have the bridge name changed to " State Route 187 / Garcetti / Obama / Thomas Up Bridge No. 53 - 3070L", since he is so fond of renaming things, especially stations... RT But to get enough support from other supervisors, it will be further amended as State Route 187 / Garcetti / Obama / Thomas Up Bridge No. 53 - 3070L con Línea de la Expo
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Post by transitfan on Mar 14, 2014 7:00:06 GMT -8
Wow, I lived near Venice Blvd for almost a year, and I never knew that it was state route 187. I wonder if that designation appears in the Thomas Brothers book (I miss those!) or other maps.
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Post by Gokhan on Mar 14, 2014 9:49:58 GMT -8
Wow, I lived near Venice Blvd for almost a year, and I never knew that it was state route 187. I wonder if that designation appears in the Thomas Brothers book (I miss those!) or other maps. Yup, Venice Blvd is a Caltrans highway. That's why there was so much bureaucracy and it took so long designing the bridge -- never-ending approvals by Caltrans. It should be shown on most maps as SR 187, including the Google Maps. It was a Pacific Electric Railway right-of-way with no street area for cars until early 1930s and then they paved portions of it to make it a street and named it Venice Blvd. Pacific Electric Railway must have sold it to Caltrans in the 1960s when they went out of business. Incidentally, Pacific Electric Railway almost built a steel rail bridge over La Cienega Blvd shortly before they went out of business. The drawings are still in the LA City Vault.
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Post by Gokhan on Mar 14, 2014 10:10:35 GMT -8
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Post by darrell on Mar 14, 2014 22:40:26 GMT -8
Incidentally, Pacific Electric Railway almost built a steel rail bridge over La Cienega Blvd shortly before they went out of business. The drawings are still in the LA City Vault. It was built and later demolished. Per Tom Wetzel's history of the Venice Short Line (click through for a lot of great images!): From Longwood Avenue to Pacific Avenue in Venice the line operates on private right of way in the median of Venice Boulevard. At La Cienega Boulevard the line crosses over a grade separation (built in the late '20s and demolished in the early '60s), as shown below. The right of way was wide enough for four tracks. The 1920s Los Angeles rapid transit plan proposed to raise the Venice Blvd line onto a 4-track embankment with concrete retaining walls from Vineyard to Robertson Blvd, eliminating all grade crossings. This would have allowed high speed beach express trains a fast run into downtown Los Angeles through the proposed subway to Vineyard. Local trains running on the outer tracks would have made the local stops as far as Culver City.
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Post by darrell on Mar 14, 2014 23:51:14 GMT -8
To complement Gokhan's updates on the eastern part of Phase 2 here are some photos I took farther west mid-day today. Rails are ready for the embedded track on Colorado east of 11th Street in Santa Monica. The street closure has begun at 17th Street (above), with a trench begun (below). Added: Revisiting the Expo Authority construction notice, the closure is scheduled for 11-day continuous closure from 1:00 a.m. Saturday, March 22 to 8:00 a.m. Wednesday, April 2, 2014. So Friday's closure must be only preparation for the big one. Foundations for something at the Stewart yard are underway. Not brand new but quite visible, power lines at the Centinela bridge are on new poles and no longer crossing the tracks. Here's a 10/24/12 "before" photo to compare: The Great Wall of West L.A. from Centinela to Bundy is nearly complete. Forms are off the Bundy bridge - except for a short piece - revealing twin spans. The last falsework is still over Pico. The ramp to the Sepulveda bridge is visible right of the soon-to-depart concrete plant, but there's not a ramp at Sawtelle yet. And the forms are off the Sepulveda bridge, although its east ramp is also yet to begin.
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Post by transitfan on Mar 17, 2014 7:48:18 GMT -8
Incidentally, Pacific Electric Railway almost built a steel rail bridge over La Cienega Blvd shortly before they went out of business. The drawings are still in the LA City Vault. It was built and later demolished. Per Tom Wetzel's history of the Venice Short Line (click through for a lot of great images!): From Longwood Avenue to Pacific Avenue in Venice the line operates on private right of way in the median of Venice Boulevard. At La Cienega Boulevard the line crosses over a grade separation (built in the late '20s and demolished in the early '60s), as shown below. The right of way was wide enough for four tracks. The 1920s Los Angeles rapid transit plan proposed to raise the Venice Blvd line onto a 4-track embankment with concrete retaining walls from Vineyard to Robertson Blvd, eliminating all grade crossings. This would have allowed high speed beach express trains a fast run into downtown Los Angeles through the proposed subway to Vineyard. Local trains running on the outer tracks would have made the local stops as far as Culver City. If the Venice Short Line had survived, the alignment of the Santa Monica Freeway may have been different. It is elevated in the Venice/La Cienega area, but I'm sure it would not have cleared the PE bridge, so it would have had to been depressed, as it is east of La Brea.
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Post by Alexis Kasperavičius on Mar 19, 2014 22:23:37 GMT -8
Just some B roll of end-of-line construction:
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Post by Gokhan on Mar 25, 2014 11:58:33 GMT -8
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Post by darrell on Mar 25, 2014 20:32:44 GMT -8
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Post by darrell on Mar 26, 2014 16:27:00 GMT -8
The really BIG grade-crossing construction closure was just announced by Expo (PDF) - Lincoln at Colorado from April 21 to April 28.
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Post by RMoses on Mar 26, 2014 21:32:19 GMT -8
The really BIG grade-crossing construction closure was just announced by Expo (PDF) - Lincoln at Colorado from April 21 to April 28. Hopefully no one will follow the Northbound Detour. Because if you do, you will run into a head-on collision when you turn right on Olympic from Lincoln Blvd. north of the 10. Does ANYONE with adequate knowledge proof read these notices?
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Post by joshuanickel on Mar 27, 2014 8:58:47 GMT -8
The really BIG grade-crossing construction closure was just announced by Expo (PDF) - Lincoln at Colorado from April 21 to April 28. Hopefully no one will follow the Northbound Detour. Because if you do, you will run into a head-on collision when you turn right on Olympic from Lincoln Blvd. north of the 10. Does ANYONE with adequate knowledge proof read these notices? I saw the same thing. The detour should be to turn right on to Olympic Drive, south of the 10 to go up to 11th st. You could also turn left on to Olympic, north of the 10 and go down 7th street. Out of all of the road closures for rail installation, this is going to be the one with the worst traffic impacts. The traffic is already practically at a standstill there right now because they have a lane closed during the day for utility relocation.
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Post by darrell on Mar 27, 2014 16:37:48 GMT -8
The really BIG grade-crossing construction closure was just announced by Expo (PDF) - Lincoln at Colorado from April 21 to April 28. Here's my most recent "before" photo of Colorado at Lincoln, taken last 12/26/13. I keep wondering what they'll do with the electrical vaults below the intersection, but they must have learned what's there from the trenching you see.
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Post by darrell on Mar 27, 2014 21:05:04 GMT -8
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Post by darrell on Mar 30, 2014 21:15:38 GMT -8
Here's a new Expo Authority photo forwarded by Alan Weeks, with concrete for the 17th Street crossing nearly complete. The photographer was standing on the right-of-way east of the intersection, looking west.
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Post by Gokhan on Mar 31, 2014 11:31:49 GMT -8
Northvale Road trench as of Saturday: Street reconstruction in Palms near Bagley Avenue. It looks like they are widening the very narrow stretch of Exposition Blvd a little here: They reconstructed and restriped Motor Ave last week and removed the K rails.
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Post by culvercitylocke on Apr 1, 2014 7:05:39 GMT -8
When are they going to start the grade rail crossing at Bagley?
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Post by Gokhan on Apr 1, 2014 10:20:09 GMT -8
When are they going to start the grade rail crossing at Bagley? Summer I think.
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Post by Gokhan on Apr 1, 2014 10:21:08 GMT -8
It appeared this morning that Balfour Beatty Infrastructure, Inc, was clearing the staging area at the Culver City Station.
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Post by Gokhan on Apr 1, 2014 10:22:46 GMT -8
When falsework fails, it's scary and dangerous. Metro Bus Division 13 construction in Downtown:
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Post by joshuanickel on Apr 1, 2014 12:35:19 GMT -8
Now that the 17th street grade crossing is done, crews have started work on installing the embedded tracks between 11th street and 14th street.
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Post by rajacobs on Apr 1, 2014 22:57:38 GMT -8
I just read: Metro areas in California, a state widely associated with congested megahighways, a fierce dependence on automobiles and far-flung suburbs, are not that sprawling after all. ... “The best surprise story is Los Angeles,” Ewing said. “Los Angeles has actually densified substantially … Most of the development has been infill.” And the city’s rail and subway systems have contributed to more connected development, he said. You might say we're on the right track! alj.am/1kr7RPL
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Post by skater on Apr 2, 2014 13:45:44 GMT -8
When falsework fails, it's scary and dangerous. Metro Bus Division 13 construction in Downtown: when there are construction accidents like this one, who takes the blame, metro, or the contracter? who is liable injuries and property damage? (insurance??) who pays the extra cost of repairing the damage?
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Post by Gokhan on Apr 3, 2014 9:00:14 GMT -8
when there are construction accidents like this one, who takes the blame, metro, or the contracter? who is liable injuries and property damage? (insurance??) who pays the extra cost of repairing the damage? Obviously the contractor/subcontractor/workers are responsible. They should have insurance but I don't know what it applies to and how much the deductible is.
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Post by Gokhan on Apr 3, 2014 9:02:48 GMT -8
It appeared this morning that Balfour Beatty Infrastructure, Inc, was clearing the staging area at the Culver City Station. The area is now virtually clear and the construction of the "Clean Mobility Center", which no one knows what it is, should soon start.
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Post by bobdavis on Apr 3, 2014 17:46:21 GMT -8
These things happen--back about a hundred years ago on a hydro-electric power plant project, either the crew tried to remove the forms/falsework before the concrete had set, or engineering staff underestimated the weight of the wet concrete, but the resulting collapse was a major setback. And I believe that this happened on a Pacific Light & Power job; this was part of Henry Huntington's empire, and when the project was finally finished, the main use for the power generated at this plant was to run the PE and LARy trolley services.
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