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Post by Gokhan on Jun 30, 2015 12:18:35 GMT -8
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Post by Alexis Kasperavičius on Jun 30, 2015 23:14:42 GMT -8
Is it just me. or does every NBC4 spot try and take a dig at Metro Expo? Even this one: "Kim, you talked with some business owners who really suffered...?" - And the next story by Kim: the traffic is too fast on Overland and kids will get killed all because of Expo! I seem to recall other stories that seem weirdly negative. Is it possible a still-bitter Cheviot hills resident might be in charge of story planning at NBC? A
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Post by bobdavis on Jun 30, 2015 23:36:19 GMT -8
I think Channel 7 ABC has a better attitude toward rail projects--they might even have a "closet railfan" in their staff. I remember a newspaper in Sacramento that never missed an opportunity to bad-mouth the RT Metro light rail project. For example, any time a store along the K Street transit mall shut down, the Sacramento Union would accuse the rail operation of killing off the business, even if the reason for quitting had nothing to do with the railway. The Union went out of business some time ago.
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Post by Gokhan on Jul 1, 2015 13:48:21 GMT -8
Height measured to where? Static car height from top of the roof-mounted equipment to top of railNippon Sharyo P865/P2020 11.50 ft Siemens P2000 12.17 ft Ansaldo Breda P2550 12.50 ft Kinki Sharyo P3010 12.50 ft See the manual. Dynamic car height (such as on an angled bridge like at Sawtelle Blvd) is higher than the static car height. In any case, I think the clearance between the roof-mounted equipment (A/C) and OCS contact wire will be as little as six inches with the Nippon Sharyo P3010. Adding 7% to the static height because of the 7% grade there results in 13.4 ft. Even with a 15.0 ft bridge soffit, assuming the contact wire is 1 ft below, it results in a clearance of 0.6 ft between the wire and A/C. Scary with 750 V DC and thousands of amperes -- a megawatt electric explosion in the making that would really scare the passengers!!! I asked about this to the Metro testing director at the meeting last night. Unfortunately, I forgot to ask whether the clearance is measured vertically (along a plumb line) or perpendicularly to the tracks. He said that the bridge soffit is 15 ft from top of rail (TOR). Again, I don't know if this is vertical or perpendicular measurement. He said that the lowest the pantograph can go is 13.5 ft from TOR. Normal pantograph height is 14 ft -- I am guessing intended height at this bridge. Contact wire is hanging 1 ft below the bridge soffit. The problem is that if the 15 ft clearance is vertical clearance, not perpendicular, then the perpendicular clearance is 15 ft / 1.07 = 14 ft, where 1.07 is the grade (slope) of the bridge. Since the lowest the pantograph can go is 13.5 ft, this pushes the contact wire within 6 inches of the bridge soffit. So, it will be really really tight. He said that even 6 inches of clearance between the pantograph and bridge soffit will work, which is likely what it will be. The A/C is 12.5 from TOR. So, it is only 6 inches below the unpressed contact wire. In summary, the drawing below shows how it will be. The clearance is really tight to say the least!
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Post by Gokhan on Jul 1, 2015 14:04:44 GMT -8
At the "final" Expo meeting last night, I was told by Skanska that the current estimate on the date of the substantial completion is October 2015, which is three months behind the contract date of July 10, 2015. Since the operation and maintenance facility won't be completed until around the same time, this shouldn't make much difference.
The format was different this time -- public question and answer. One lady who lives near Westwood Station was saying that she was having too many rats and mice since the Expo Line. There was a troll at the end questioning about (lack of) Palms Station parking and trying to have Expo admit by indirect questioning that no one will use the Palms Station because there is no parking and it shouldn't have been built. Well, that was also the final Expo Line meeting troll.
Expo Authority CEO Rick Thorpe will retire on January 6, 2016. He wanted to retire in July 2015 near the intended but missed substantial completion in July 2015 but the board asked him to delay his retirement.
The most remarkable information came from Tom Jasmin, the veteran Metro testing director. He said he had never had any line that he didn't run into problems with during testing. He said that Expo Line Phase 2 is unique in that they have run into zero problems during testing so far. So, the testing is going as well as it can.
It looks like the entire line is set to open to revenue operations in late March 2016 as planned by Metro.
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Post by joshuanickel on Jul 1, 2015 14:30:15 GMT -8
Apparently LADOT has tried to improve the situation at Venice and Robertson. They have posted this video on youtube that talks about a new flashing yellow arrow for cars making a right turn off of Robertson and on to eastbound Venice. Has anyone experienced this and noticed whether or not it has made the situation better for pedestarians?
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Post by joshuanickel on Jul 1, 2015 14:34:58 GMT -8
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f ron
Full Member
Posts: 222
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Post by f ron on Jul 1, 2015 15:41:25 GMT -8
... One lady who lives near Westwood Station was saying that she was having too many rats and mice since the Expo Line. Um, as someone who lives along the trench I can say there's anecdotal evidence to support this. In a related note, the hawk population seems to be thriving too. So there's that.
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Post by bzcat on Jul 2, 2015 10:28:47 GMT -8
But the rats moving to residential area may be related to weather... the drought may have brought them closer to the domestic water source.
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f ron
Full Member
Posts: 222
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Post by f ron on Jul 2, 2015 10:40:34 GMT -8
But the rats moving to residential area may be related to weather... the drought may have brought them closer to the domestic water source. For sure, there could be many reasons --and there usually are-- for this kind of phenomena. The loss of habitat though has also eliminated a couple of predators. The feral cats --whose den by Rancho Park has been well documented by Gokhan during construction-- roamed the trench and likely got as far as the greenway around what's now the Westwood Station have been severely impacted. Also, there was a pack of coyotes that used to roam back there as well. I couldn't say how many, I never saw them first hand but would occasionally hear them yipping at night when they passed through. They don't seem to come by any longer. Now it seems the mice and the rats will play. I've considered setting up an owl box on the edge of my property --it's doable and there are a ton of tall trees that line the trench but I don't know if owls will take to a running train at practically all hours or how they feel about the lights which will soon be turned on.
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Post by darrell on Jul 3, 2015 10:47:00 GMT -8
Static car height from top of the roof-mounted equipment to top of railNippon Sharyo P865/P2020 11.50 ft Siemens P2000 12.17 ft Ansaldo Breda P2550 12.50 ft Kinki Sharyo P3010 12.50 ft See the manual. Dynamic car height (such as on an angled bridge like at Sawtelle Blvd) is higher than the static car height. In any case, I think the clearance between the roof-mounted equipment (A/C) and OCS contact wire will be as little as six inches with the Nippon Sharyo P3010. Adding 7% to the static height because of the 7% grade there results in 13.4 ft. Even with a 15.0 ft bridge soffit, assuming the contact wire is 1 ft below, it results in a clearance of 0.6 ft between the wire and A/C. Scary with 750 V DC and thousands of amperes -- a megawatt electric explosion in the making that would really scare the passengers!!! I asked about this to the Metro testing director at the meeting last night. Unfortunately, I forgot to ask whether the clearance is measured vertically (along a plumb line) or perpendicularly to the tracks. He said that the bridge soffit is 15 ft from top of rail (TOR). Again, I don't know if this is vertical or perpendicular measurement. He said that the lowest the pantograph can go is 13.5 ft from TOR. Normal pantograph height is 14 ft -- I am guessing intended height at this bridge. Contact wire is hanging 1 ft below the bridge soffit. The problem is that if the 15 ft clearance is vertical clearance, not perpendicular, then the perpendicular clearance is 15 ft / 1.07 = 14 ft, where 1.07 is the grade (slope) of the bridge. Since the lowest the pantograph can go is 13.5 ft, this pushes the contact wire within 6 inches of the bridge soffit. So, it will be really really tight. He said that even 6 inches of clearance between the pantograph and bridge soffit will work, which is likely what it will be. The A/C is 12.5 from TOR. So, it is only 6 inches below the unpressed contact wire. In summary, the drawing below shows how it will be. The clearance is really tight to say the least!
Not the best photo -- I keep going by there at night, as I did yesterday -- but it should be useful. The red line marks a horizontal on the MSE wall panels at the Sawtelle end where the grade is steepest. Imagine it as the base of a right triangle four panels wide and 1/4 panel tall.
If we rotate this triangle 90 degrees counterclockwise and scale it to 15 feet vertical from top of rail to bridge soffit, then its base is 15/16 foot and its hypotenuse (Pythagorean Theorem) is square root (15^2 + 15/16^2) = 15.029 feet. So the difference between vertical and perpendicular is only about 1/3 inch, not 1 foot. Hard to believe this difference, and please check my math.
Small correction: the hypotenuse of the rotated triangle is the vertical clearance, the short leg is the rail, and the perpendicular is the long leg. So square root (15^2 - 1^2) = 14.97 feet = 14' - 11.6". Again, only around 1/3 inch difference. (Note: I just used a round one foot for the short leg in this version, instead of 15/16 foot, which is close enough.)
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Post by Gokhan on Jul 3, 2015 15:26:30 GMT -8
Right, if you work it out, it comes to approximately 1/2*(slope)^2. So, for 7% slope, it's about 0.25% difference between vertical and perpendicular heights. For 15 ft, this is 0.44 inches, which is negligible. This means we have an extra foot of clearance, which is good. In fact, it is the same as the Flower St I-10 bridge. However, P3010, which has never gone under either bridge, is still a foot taller at the top of the A/C. But it should be OK.
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Post by Gokhan on Jul 3, 2015 15:35:31 GMT -8
But the rats moving to residential area may be related to weather... the drought may have brought them closer to the domestic water source. For sure, there could be many reasons --and there usually are-- for this kind of phenomena. The loss of habitat though has also eliminated a couple of predators. The feral cats --whose den by Rancho Park has been well documented by Gokhan during construction-- roamed the trench and likely got as far as the greenway around what's now the Westwood Station have been severely impacted. Also, there was a pack of coyotes that used to roam back there as well. I couldn't say how many, I never saw them first hand but would occasionally hear them yipping at night when they passed through. They don't seem to come by any longer. Now it seems the mice and the rats will play. I've considered setting up an owl box on the edge of my property --it's doable and there are a ton of tall trees that line the trench but I don't know if owls will take to a running train at practically all hours or how they feel about the lights which will soon be turned on. The park along the trench is called Palms Park. The Palms Park cats are well fed and have no motivation to catch rodents. I saw coyotes on several occasions, in the trench, on Northvale Rd, and on Overland Avenue. They come out mostly late at night (after 11 am, midnight, or even 2 - 3 am). However, the one I saw in the trench near Palms Park was right after sunset. They are believed to mostly live in the golf courses and eat the rodents there but the cats and small pets are not safe from them.
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Post by Alexis Kasperavičius on Jul 6, 2015 4:59:49 GMT -8
First review on the bike path:
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Post by jamesinclair on Jul 6, 2015 9:16:50 GMT -8
Hm, the planting strip on the left between the path and the road looks way too small to support decent trees
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Post by bzcat on Jul 8, 2015 10:25:46 GMT -8
Saw a Nippon Sharyo train pulling into Sepulveda station this morning on its own power... first time seeing a train unassisted on phase 2 tracks. I've only seen it being towed.
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Post by tramfan on Jul 8, 2015 12:54:24 GMT -8
The test trains have been driving on their own power by my house on Exposition/Military on a daily basis. They're testing all the way to the Centinela interlock. Some photos were posted on Expolinefan's Ipernity page.
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Post by Gokhan on Jul 9, 2015 13:22:13 GMT -8
Towing happens only on the very first day to verify the clearances. After the first day, the foams are removed and the trains are self-powered. There is no point in towing trains around once the clearances are checked. For some reason, they skipped the towing test entirely for the section east of Military Avenue and the trains ran self-powered from Day One.
Towing test to Downtown Santa Monica Station will take place on July 16. On July 21, self-powered trains will run to Downtown Santa Monica Station.
Once the gates and signals are finished and certified by CPUC and the car stops between Phase 1 and Phase 2 are removed, we will see some real testing with a fully operational system and fast trains. This probably won't happen until around October -- expected date of substantial completion.
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Post by joemagruder on Jul 9, 2015 15:42:22 GMT -8
I think that cat hunting behavior is inate and not related to hunger.
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Post by Gokhan on Jul 22, 2015 1:18:54 GMT -8
Due to a "safety incident," Expo Line Phase 2 testing has been suspended. It will resume on Tuesday, July 28, with the tow test to Santa Monica terminus and after a day or two, self-powered trains will run between just west of Culver City and the terminus.
Trains won't run through Culver City until the tie-in/cut-in, which will require two full weekend closures on August 14 - 16 and 28 - 30.
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Post by Gokhan on Jul 22, 2015 5:12:09 GMT -8
Military Ave and Barrington Ave, the last remaining crossings in LA, are expected to be certified by CPUC this week. This means that next week the trains can operate without flagsmen east of Stewart St.
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Post by bzcat on Jul 22, 2015 10:52:48 GMT -8
The traffic light is operational at the Military crossing. Does that mean CPUC already certified it? Otherwise the traffic light can't turn on right?
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Post by RMoses on Jul 22, 2015 13:45:52 GMT -8
City of Santa Monica @santamonicacity
#SantaMonica TRAIN TESTING IS ABOUT TO BEGIN Expect train movement at ANY TIME, ON ANY TRACK, AND IN ANY DIRECTION
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f ron
Full Member
Posts: 222
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Post by f ron on Jul 22, 2015 14:02:55 GMT -8
The traffic light is operational at the Military crossing. Does that mean CPUC already certified it? Otherwise the traffic light can't turn on right? It's hard to tell exactly what's the status of the signal at Military. On one hand the lights are fully operational. The gates go down for the passing train, the no-turn on red (if you're on Exposition) illuminates, yet when the gates are down ALL signals go to red. Cars can't even proceed on Exposition (parallel to the train) until the gates have lifted. That's a long wait for no reason. It's hard to fathom that this is LADOT's intention --that when a train is present no traffic anywhere around the intersection is to proceed. They gotta work that out.
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Post by tramfan on Jul 27, 2015 9:32:35 GMT -8
The LADOT and CPUC officials who were at the crossing for certification told me that they would be adjusting the traffic signals in the weeks to come. The "no left turn" illuminated signals on both sides of Exposition only make sense if the lights turn green for parallel traffic on the Southside and right turning traffic on the Northside. Otherwise those illuminated signs are useless. I expect them to be more functional in the coming months when trains will use the crossing more frequently.
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Post by joshuanickel on Jul 29, 2015 13:28:26 GMT -8
Today was the first day a test train ran down Colorado in to Downtown Santa Monica. Here are a few pictures: Turning on to Colorado from the ROW: Passing by 17th Street Station: Going down Colorado between 14th and 11th Street: Crossing 11th Street: My camera battery died by the time it got to Lincoln so I was not able to get photos of it going in to the terminus.
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Post by RMoses on Jul 29, 2015 14:16:59 GMT -8
Saw the test car at the Terminus, got a few shots driving on 4th Street. Can't upload as no space in forum. From SM FB: t.co/JOBWNP2Xaz
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Post by Gokhan on Jul 30, 2015 8:53:05 GMT -8
I advocate that in the future clearance-test trains are pulled by a horse.
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Post by darrell on Jul 30, 2015 9:16:58 GMT -8
Two videos from yesterday:
Crossing 17th Street
On the way west
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Post by darrell on Jul 30, 2015 12:03:03 GMT -8
And a selection of photos from yesterday's historic test along Colorado ... After rather a wait the truck is coupled on and begins to move toward 17th about 12:30, with three Sheriff's cars stopping traffic Passes the station and heads west Crossed Lincoln before 1:00 Looking toward the terminus station But a wait at 7th Street for the truck to uncouple, run around, and recouple to push the last few blocks In the terminus station! (A trick to photograph the shine on the sun gratings is to underexpose, then brighten the shadows) Laying the pavers for the pedestrian promenade along Colorado to the pier Past 3:30 the car is towed back east on the other track, with a dramatic thunderhead in the background
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