f ron
Full Member
Posts: 222
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Post by f ron on Apr 20, 2015 17:40:41 GMT -8
The $64 question is will the sidewalks be concreted contiguously? Will any of the sidewalks the contractor builds be concreted contiguously? Is there a reason why nearly every stretch of sidewalk that they've poured is checker boarded with empty plots? Sometimes they extend the courtesy of pouring asphalt into the empty spaces so that strollers, carts and bicycles can pass but most of the time not and the often distressed pedestrian must use the gutter of a busy street. I would guess and hope the holes are temporary. I'm confident they're temporary but the problem is the definition of the term. In my experience and observation temporary with this contractor amounts to anywhere from 40-120 days.
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Post by transitfan on Apr 21, 2015 7:04:15 GMT -8
I think everyone will figure out quickly to board the train with passengers in it. Same problem is already the case with the Culver City Station. Few fail to board the departing train and end up waiting for the next train. This reminds me of when the Long Beach loop first opened on the Blue Line. At that time, the schedule was rather generous, giving an hour to get from 7th St/Metro Center to Transit Mall. This resulted in a 15 minute layover at TM. With 10 minute headways, this resulted in both tracks having trains about half of the time. What usually happened was as follows: a train would arrive with another train already in the station. This train would have the doors open boarding passengers. The newly arrived train would open the doors to let passengers disembark, then after maybe a minute, it would switch to "door" mode (doors would close, but the open door buttons by each door (inside and outside of the car) would activate. So people arriving at TM would see one train with open doors and the other with closed doors and would pick the open door train which was the next one to leave. After that first train left, the second train would open up and remain open until its departure time. Eventually, RTD figured out you didn't need 60 minutes to travel from 7MC to TM and tightened the schedule (shaving a train from the schedule in the process), so then there were not 2 trains in the station as often.
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Post by Gokhan on Apr 21, 2015 12:02:21 GMT -8
Palms' dirt sidewalks were dug today. So, I'm glad that I took the pictures yesterday before they disappeared.
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Post by thanks4goingmetro on Apr 21, 2015 14:07:58 GMT -8
Views of the Palms' dirt sidewalks before they are concreted soon: Having rode my bicycle on this street and in the Palms area many times, I still find it hard to believe that there were no sidewalks in part of this the second most dense neighborhood in Los Angeles.
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Post by jamesinclair on Apr 22, 2015 7:10:43 GMT -8
How will people know what platform to wait at, and where are the ramps? The ramps/stairs are located on the 4th street side of the station to the north and the south. Unless plans have changed, the stairs to 5th street are for emergency exit only. There will also be fare gates at this station. Ugh, I hate that. Making people detour for zero reason
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Post by Alexis Kasperavičius on Apr 22, 2015 8:39:08 GMT -8
The ramps/stairs are located on the 4th street side of the station to the north and the south. Unless plans have changed, the stairs to 5th street are for emergency exit only. There will also be fare gates at this station. Ugh, I hate that. Making people detour for zero reason Look at the bright side: It will give the police ample reason to detain or ticket anyone who dares to question the state's logic and decides to use those stairs. We all just need to accept that it's "safer" to walk an extra two blocks if we want to walk into the city. Everyone should be walking toward the beach or the promenade as instructed, no people who need to get to work on time will ever be on this train. Plenty of ticket money to be made with that design choice! See? It's for the greater good, citizen!
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Post by johanragle on Apr 22, 2015 10:13:21 GMT -8
I wonder why they couldn't just put fare gates on both ends. Too much extra cost? (Hah, as if.) Fear of ADA lawsuits because there wasn't enough room for ramps on both sides? Seems plausible.
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Post by bzcat on Apr 22, 2015 10:49:34 GMT -8
Having rode my bicycle on this street and in the Palms area many times, I still find it hard to believe that there were no sidewalks in part of this the second most dense neighborhood in Los Angeles. In the way back times, Palms was originally considered a podunk outpost far from civilization. So when the ranchos were originally subdivided, the City didn't require developers to put in curbs, never mind sidewalks or storm drain/gutters. Later on, the homeowners in the area liked the "rural" characters of their new neighborhoods and didn't ask the City to put them in either. The density in Palms didn't come until the I-10 freeway put Palms on the "wrong" side. Wealthy people moved out and with lack of NIMBYs, large tracts of Palms were rezoned for multi-family homes and dingbat apartments took over from "rural" single family homes. I believe there is a set-back requirement in Palms now so if a development wants to build something completely new on a residential street, they have to give the city an easement parallel to the street for sidewalk and curb. This is why some of the streets (particularly those with apartments) in Palms have curb but some streets (mostly the ones still with all single family homes) have no curb or sidewalk. Typical "urban" Palms street with curbs: goo.gl/maps/rc0MlTypical "rural" Palms street with no curbs: goo.gl/maps/nj3hf
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Post by joshuanickel on Apr 22, 2015 14:32:30 GMT -8
The ramps/stairs are located on the 4th street side of the station to the north and the south. Unless plans have changed, the stairs to 5th street are for emergency exit only. There will also be fare gates at this station. Ugh, I hate that. Making people detour for zero reason Ugh, I hate that. Making people detour for zero reason Look at the bright side: It will give the police ample reason to detain or ticket anyone who dares to question the state's logic and decides to use those stairs. We all just need to accept that it's "safer" to walk an extra two blocks if we want to walk into the city. Everyone should be walking toward the beach or the promenade as instructed, no people who need to get to work on time will ever be on this train. Plenty of ticket money to be made with that design choice! See? It's for the greater good, citizen! I wonder why they couldn't just put fare gates on both ends. Too much extra cost? (Hah, as if.) Fear of ADA lawsuits because there wasn't enough room for ramps on both sides? Seems plausible. Looking at this picture, you can see that there are constraints with putting fare gates on the 5th street side of the station: DTSM station looking NorthThe stairs come right down to the sidewalk that will have multiple OCS poles in the middle of it, along with the lack of area to install the fare gates, ticket machines and fence/emergency gate/intercom. I don't think it will be a problem. It is only a distance of 300 feet which is not that far to walk and if you go down the ada ranp on the north side of the station, it will come down in the direction of 5th street halfway between 4th and 5th. Here is a picture that shows the end of the ada ramp in relation to 5th street: DTSM station looking East
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Post by RMoses on Apr 22, 2015 15:48:59 GMT -8
As designed an entrance from the 5th St. side is a no go; but it is a shame Santa Monica did not push/pay Expo for a better layout. The number of housing units to the east of 4th street is only growing as well as numerous new ones north , (west of Lincoln and south of Wilshire). 13 blocks between stations with Lincoln Blvd in between calls for direct access to the 4th St Terminus from all directions. A pedestrian tunnel should have been incorporated to facilitate pedestrian movements from the east side.
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Post by RMoses on Apr 22, 2015 20:30:21 GMT -8
I was at the Expo meeting in Palms / Cheviot Hills tonight. Most construction will be finished by the end of 2014. The line will be completed and handed over to Metro for prerevenue operations in April 2015. ----------------------------------------- Space Reserved for April 2015 ----------------------------------------- Safe to say, don't think they will make it.
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Post by jamesinclair on Apr 23, 2015 9:22:57 GMT -8
Ugh, I hate that. Making people detour for zero reason Look at the bright side: It will give the police ample reason to detain or ticket anyone who dares to question the state's logic and decides to use those stairs. We all just need to accept that it's "safer" to walk an extra two blocks if we want to walk into the city. Everyone should be walking toward the beach or the promenade as instructed, no people who need to get to work on time will ever be on this train. Plenty of ticket money to be made with that design choice! See? It's for the greater good, citizen! I wonder why they couldn't just put fare gates on both ends. Too much extra cost? (Hah, as if.) Fear of ADA lawsuits because there wasn't enough room for ramps on both sides? Seems plausible. Looking at this picture, you can see that there are constraints with putting fare gates on the 5th street side of the station: DTSM station looking NorthThe stairs come right down to the sidewalk that will have multiple OCS poles in the middle of it, along with the lack of area to install the fare gates, ticket machines and fence/emergency gate/intercom. I don't think it will be a problem. It is only a distance of 300 feet which is not that far to walk and if you go down the ada ranp on the north side of the station, it will come down in the direction of 5th street halfway between 4th and 5th. Here is a picture that shows the end of the ada ramp in relation to 5th street: DTSM station looking EastThose are manufactured constraints. "We cant do this because the way we're building it means we cant do this"
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Post by Gokhan on Apr 23, 2015 10:53:45 GMT -8
Having rode my bicycle on this street and in the Palms area many times, I still find it hard to believe that there were no sidewalks in part of this the second most dense neighborhood in Los Angeles. In the way back times, Palms was originally considered a podunk outpost far from civilization. So when the ranchos were originally subdivided, the City didn't require developers to put in curbs, never mind sidewalks or storm drain/gutters. Later on, the homeowners in the area liked the "rural" characters of their new neighborhoods and didn't ask the City to put them in either. The density in Palms didn't come until the I-10 freeway put Palms on the "wrong" side. Wealthy people moved out and with lack of NIMBYs, large tracts of Palms were rezoned for multi-family homes and dingbat apartments took over from "rural" single family homes. I believe there is a set-back requirement in Palms now so if a development wants to build something completely new on a residential street, they have to give the city an easement parallel to the street for sidewalk and curb. This is why some of the streets (particularly those with apartments) in Palms have curb but some streets (mostly the ones still with all single family homes) have no curb or sidewalk. Typical "urban" Palms street with curbs: goo.gl/maps/rc0MlTypical "rural" Palms street with no curbs: goo.gl/maps/nj3hfIt's unfortunate that there will be a gap in the northern sidewalk of National Boulevard between Clarington Avenue and Jasmine Avenue, where there is a little triangular wedge of commercial property with three businesses -- some gym-equipment business, boy scouts, and a small gym. These businesses are using the side of the street for street parking and this has led to a gap in the sidewalk here. The right thing to do would be to build a sidewalk and put parking meters along National Boulevard so that the patrons could use the meters to park. goo.gl/maps/lyZXk
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Post by Gokhan on Apr 23, 2015 11:20:31 GMT -8
Can the line open on May 22, 2016, which is the ROD with contingency? It's likely but I am guessing that they will run into many, many problems during testing, given the complicated nature of the Phase 2 alignment and many ad hoc designs along the way. Therefore, don't be surprised if CPUC doesn't approve the line to be opened until late 2016 or even early 2017. Such as these crossing gates at Overland Avenue going through the overhead fiber-optic cables. A little wind, gates are tangled in the cables. Lol
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Post by thanks4goingmetro on Apr 23, 2015 12:40:56 GMT -8
Can the line open on May 22, 2016, which is the ROD with contingency? It's likely but I am guessing that they will run into many, many problems during testing, given the complicated nature of the Phase 2 alignment and many ad hoc designs along the way. Therefore, don't be surprised if CPUC doesn't approve the line to be opened until late 2016 or even early 2017. Such as these crossing gates at Overland Avenue going through the overhead fiber-optic cables. A little wind, gates are tangled in the cables. Lol It beats me that that during utility relocation, in all of their wisdom, they don't also move or bury the above-ground utilities that may disrupt service in a wind storm or some other event. Sure it's saved some time but it seems hazardous in my opinion.
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Post by darrell on Apr 28, 2015 21:19:09 GMT -8
Some new photos from Sepulveda to Barrington on Sunday afternoon (April 26), a breezy clear day after the sort-of rain the day before. Sepulveda bridge ... note the concrete side panels Messenger wire below the 405 (shadow detail lightened a lot in Photoshop) Sawtelle bridge, with street re-paving going on Pico Barrington looking east, crop detail below of the special vibration-absorbing section Barrington looking west
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Post by darrell on Apr 30, 2015 10:41:13 GMT -8
I was on a panel talking about the Expo Line at the Santa Monica Democratic Club yesterday evening, with Denny Zane (Move LA) and Francie Stefan (City of Santa Monica).
On the subject of signal priority for trains on Colorado in Santa Monica, Francie said Metro is working closely with the city to provide it. Metro insisted on priority eastbound at Lincoln to keep trains on schedule, but trains may stop westbound at Lincoln.
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Post by bzcat on Apr 30, 2015 11:31:35 GMT -8
I was on a panel talking about the Expo Line at the Santa Monica Democratic Club yesterday evening, with Denny Zane (Move LA) and Francie Stefan (City of Santa Monica). On the subject of signal priority for trains on Colorado in Santa Monica, Francie said Metro is working closely with the city to provide it. Metro insisted on priority eastbound at Lincoln to keep trains on schedule, but trains may stop westbound at Lincoln. Good news. Hopefully it is more than just Lincoln crossing that receives signal priority. Signal preemption is even better... but will Santa Monica go that far?
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Post by Philip on Apr 30, 2015 16:02:39 GMT -8
Santa Monica really needs to give the line signal priority, especially when they could have had an elevated alignment down Olympic that they passed on in favor of the Colorado route.
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Post by RMoses on May 1, 2015 7:35:50 GMT -8
Santa Monica really needs to give the line signal priority, especially when they could have had an elevated alignment down Olympic that they passed on in favor of the Colorado route. A state road and a freeway off ramp one block away seems unlikely.
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Post by Gokhan on May 7, 2015 10:17:36 GMT -8
The new station benches are much nicer in the sense that they can sit three people, instead of the Phase 1 benches, where only one person can sit:
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Post by Gokhan on May 7, 2015 10:20:35 GMT -8
There has been a lot of construction along National Blvd and Exposition Blvd in Palms. National Blvd will be closed starting Friday. Today LADOT was removing the pedestrian island. It will be gone for good. I don't know if it's meant to improve driving experience or pedestrian experience:
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Post by Gokhan on May 7, 2015 10:23:20 GMT -8
Test train no. 126 is finally back at Bagley Avenue after a long break. For some reason, there were more sheriff deputies (seven cars) than Metro and Skanska staff:
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Post by joshuanickel on May 8, 2015 15:36:45 GMT -8
EXPO LINE FAN has had some excellent photos of the maintenance yard sent to him by the construction authority that were taken from the roof of the maintenance facility this week. If you have time, take a look at the photos over on his photo page. EXPO LINE FAN's photos
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Post by johanragle on May 8, 2015 20:18:09 GMT -8
I'm an idiot, posted these in the phase 1 thread. Fixed now. Steve Hymon released a number of photos from the signals testing in West LA. thesource.metro.net/2015/05/08/photos-signal-testing-in-west-l-a-for-expo-line-2/If they don't allow hotlinking, I'll just rehost on Imgur or something. Crossing Westwood Boulevard. Photos by Steve Hymon/Metro. Train in Westwood/Rancho Park Station. Train in Westwood/Rancho Park Station. Train in Westwood/Rancho Park Station. Train in Westwood/Rancho Park Station. Test train heading west toward Military Avenue and, beyond, the Exposition/Sepulveda Station.
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Post by Gokhan on May 8, 2015 20:38:57 GMT -8
So, from the picture, the gates at Westwood Blvd didn't come down.
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Post by Gokhan on May 9, 2015 18:22:37 GMT -8
Westwood Station with the test train parked, looking east: Kiss-and-ride area: Bike and pedestrian multiuse path looking west from Westwood Blvd, waiting for concrete to be poured. There is a pedestrian plaza and Exposition Boulevard South becomes one-way-eastbound (right-turn-only) just before it reaches Westwood Blvd at the small cross street there:
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Post by tramfan on May 11, 2015 12:52:21 GMT -8
With the testing getting on and the opening of phase 2 immanent has anybody ever thought about how the additional passenger load is going to affect poorly designed stations like the Pico station? Shouldn't there be at least another platform on the North side to accommodate more and better loading of passengers? The fact that both Blue and Expo use this station makes it an always overcrowded mess especially during events at LA live or sports games at the Staples Center.
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Post by Alexis Kasperavičius on May 11, 2015 13:41:32 GMT -8
With the testing getting on and the opening of phase 2 immanent has anybody ever thought about how the additional passenger load is going to affect poorly designed stations like the Pico station? Shouldn't there be at least another platform on the North side to accommodate more and better loading of passengers? The fact that both Blue and Expo use this station makes it an always overcrowded mess especially during events at LA live or sports games at the Staples Center. There's already a plan in place to split Pico station into two platforms, one for each direction of travel with the extra platform going on the other side of Pico. Not sure when it's supposed to be implemented, but I remember seeing the drawings somewhere—probably in the Blue line thread.
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Post by masonite on May 11, 2015 14:11:35 GMT -8
With the testing getting on and the opening of phase 2 immanent has anybody ever thought about how the additional passenger load is going to affect poorly designed stations like the Pico station? Shouldn't there be at least another platform on the North side to accommodate more and better loading of passengers? The fact that both Blue and Expo use this station makes it an always overcrowded mess especially during events at LA live or sports games at the Staples Center. There's already a plan in place to split Pico station into two platforms, one for each direction of travel with the extra platform going on the other side of Pico. Not sure when it's supposed to be implemented, but I remember seeing the drawings somewhere—probably in the Blue line thread. AEG was going to fund the Pico Station improvements as part of the football stadium proposed there (Farmer's Field). That is now off the table, so I don't think there are improvements planned for the Pico Station, but I could be wrong about that...
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