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Post by Alexis Kasperavičius on May 30, 2013 4:51:13 GMT -8
I had occasion to take a close look at the work on the right of way just east (?) of the freeway tunnel (the side that's not the Northvale trench) I was really suprised by the amount of work NOT being done. Aside from the track grading which is now deeply rutted by the heavy equipment there's practically no signs of anything being done there. Is this a segment that's affected by the CalTrans / 10 freeway business? It seems at a real stand-still there. The plans show that the tunnel will be given a concrete floor and the rails directly attached. It's going to be tight! The approach to the tunnel will be one of the more tricky bits as they had to get clearance waivers from the State. There is no room for error and they probably want the rail team (which isn't on site yet) to see it before doing anything. They'll be out there with rulers making sure everything is just so, even then I get the impression there will be a collective holding of breath the first time they try and pass two trains in there. It should be fun for riders!
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Post by bzcat on May 30, 2013 9:40:45 GMT -8
Will there be a low speed limit before the trains enter the tunnel?
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Post by culvercitylocke on May 30, 2013 11:55:36 GMT -8
I imagine part of the timing will be to try and minimize the amount of times two trains are in the tunnel at once.
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Post by Gokhan on May 30, 2013 12:34:36 GMT -8
It's a reinforced-concrete "box structure" under the freeway, not really a tunnel. The box structure is called "Palms Overhead". It's width is 25.0 ft. In comparison, the USC trench (which is not a tunnel either is 29.9 ft in width. Yes, there will be a speed limit inside the box structure. It will probably be 10 MPH, as the next highest setting on ATP is 25 MPH. No, they won't time the trains. Two trains will be able to pass through the box structure safely. There will be a 3-ft-wide center walkway. There won't be any clearance on the sides, other than to ensure the walls don't scrape the trains. In comparison, the USC trench has a 3-ft-wide walkway on either side. There will be an intrusion-detection system in case any pedestrian walks into the box structure. The tracks will be direct-fixation, to prevent shifting of the rail. The narrowest section in the approach is 27.86 ft in width. It's between a tall retaining wall of an apartment-building parking lot and the Caltrans boundary (orange line in the aerial photo below). The standard light-rail right-of-way width is 30 ft. In the aerial photo below, you can see that the west abutment of the Motor Avenue Bridge was already encroaching the Caltrans right-of-way and they had to acquire additional land from them in order to widen it even slightly further for the new bridge superstructure. The east abutment was fine. I believe that was the only land acquisition necessary and it's already done. Source: Navigate LA
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Post by Gokhan on May 30, 2013 12:39:44 GMT -8
A Balfour Beatty Infrastructure engineer was helplessly gazing at the overhead lines at Venice/Robertson today. The Venice Bridge is now facing serious delay if DWP and Edison can't get their overhead communication lines down in a timely manner.
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Post by roadtrainer on May 30, 2013 19:02:02 GMT -8
Gokhan: Is there a way for the construction authority to hire their own contractor and remove or let the wires hang real low so that BBI came build the superstructure? P.S. what happened at the meeting last week to deal with the communications companies?
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Post by Gokhan on May 30, 2013 20:58:44 GMT -8
Gokhan: Is there a way for the construction authority to hire their own contractor and remove or let the wires hang real low so that BBI came build the superstructure? P.S. what happened at the meeting last week to deal with the communications companies? Good news, everyone! LA DWP and SC Edison have heard our complaints. They nailed long stakes on top of the wooden poles and raised the cables instead of lowering them. They will build the bridge below the cables until they are permanently relocated. I will post a picture tomorrow.
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Post by Gokhan on May 31, 2013 13:04:55 GMT -8
Today I got to talk to an SC Edison engineer. LA DWP and SC Edison own the infrastructure for the communication lines as well. He said that most lines will be removed tonight and one remaining line is being raised, instead of being removed, at the moment so that they can build the bridge under the line. Note that these are either optical or low-voltage cables and there is no risk of electrocution to construction workers. Therefore, the overhead utilities at Venice are no longer a concern for delay! Balfour Beatty Infrastructure, Inc, has the ball now and let's see how fast they can build the bridge. They still haven't finished one of their bridge supports. This is how they are raising the line. It's hard to see how much it was raised in the picture because of the perspective. Note the little wooden pole nailed on top of the big wooden pole: This is where the bridge will pass: Large reel of optical cable:
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Post by Alexis Kasperavičius on Jun 1, 2013 16:03:49 GMT -8
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Post by darrell on Jun 1, 2013 19:55:18 GMT -8
New photos from last Thursday afternoon (May 30)... I caught the Bundy bridge just as the forms are finished but rebar is yet to be placed. You can see the deeper arched center spans and the higher center platform. (This was again hold-the-camera-over-the-parapet-wall of the roof parking level of Bed Bath and Beyond on Olympic.) Looking the other way we see the Sawtelle-Pico bridge coming along. Driving on Pico we see the south column of one straddle bent (far left) and both columns of another straddle bent for the Pico crossing. Looking east from Overland the soundwall posts and substation conduit lead into the Northvale trench curve between great mature trees. Ballast curbs are complete in the trench (is it just me, or are the OCS footings off-center to the left?). I can imagine the double tracks curving toward the freeway between the curbs. And I love the vivid bougainvilleas and shaggy eucalyptus along Northvale!
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Post by darrell on Jun 1, 2013 21:52:22 GMT -8
Here are three good photos from Dwight, taken on 5/17/13: Aerial view of rebar and pipes for tensioning cables over Centinela-Olympic. Detail of rebar above a column. MSE walls rising east of Centinela.
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Post by bobdavis on Jun 1, 2013 22:44:54 GMT -8
A far cry from the rickety rails of the now vanished PE Air Line!
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Post by Gokhan on Jun 2, 2013 1:08:20 GMT -8
Thanks for the pics, Darrell. It looks like rebars take longer than the formwork. I was thinking that the Venice Blvd Bridge is really simple and it hopefully won't take too much time. I saw that they put land markers until almost the edge of freeway at the west abutment of Motor Ave Bridge. I am not sure why because I don't think they need that much additional space. They had promised that virtually all visible work except for station finishes would be finished by the end of this year. They only have seven months left now to finish all bridges, lay all track, and build all TPSSs and all OCS.
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Post by Alexis Kasperavičius on Jun 2, 2013 11:01:53 GMT -8
Dwight pointed out that, counter to my claim above, the rail crews are most assuredly on site. The reason, he says, that no trackbed work has taken place east of the 10 fwy tunnel box is that the Motor Ave. bridge will require access up the hill. Putting in the track bed now would make it needlessly difficult to access the west side of the bridge structure.
Once the Motor bridge is complete, the section between the tunnel and bridge will be completed. For now, it's just dirt.
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Post by darrell on Jun 2, 2013 17:57:42 GMT -8
I enjoyed the justopostion of (my crop of) Gokhan's current photo at National and Expo's rendering of the same place:
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Post by Gokhan on Jun 2, 2013 18:55:30 GMT -8
I enjoyed the justopostion of (my crop of) Gokhan's current photo at National and Expo's rendering of the same place: Thanks, Darrell, looking great! You need to change your avatar from the default alien kid though.
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Post by Gokhan on Jun 2, 2013 21:26:07 GMT -8
Motor Ave Bridge west-abutment work. Note that the marker flags are very close to the freeway bridge near the top of the embankment: They are putting nice smooth finish on top of the ballast-retaining walls in the Northvale road trench: You can see the end of the ballast-retaining wall near the Palms Overhead box structure, where direct-fixation track will begin for more precise track geometry as there is little or no clearance inside the structure: This is near the west edge of Palms Park where the sound wall begins:
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Post by roadtrainer on Jun 2, 2013 21:45:08 GMT -8
I enjoyed the justopostion of (my crop of) Gokhan's current photo at National and Expo's rendering of the same place: Thanks, Darrell, looking great! You need to change your avatar from the default alien kid though. I think the kid looks like an EGGHEAD!
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Post by darrell on Jun 3, 2013 11:46:50 GMT -8
Thanks, Darrell, looking great! You need to change your avatar from the default alien kid though. I think the kid looks like an EGGHEAD! Since some of you are doing logos, and I'm kind of pround of how this looks....
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Post by roadtrainer on Jun 3, 2013 19:29:18 GMT -8
]Therefore, the overhead utilities at Venice are no longer a concern for delay! [/b] Balfour Beatty Infrastructure, Inc, has the ball now and let's see how fast they can build the bridge. They still haven't finished one of their bridge supports. This is how they are raising the line. It's hard to see how much it was raised in the picture because of the perspective. Note the little wooden pole nailed on top of the big wooden pole: ::)I thought I was tripping but that cursed by transit fans telephone pole is Gone! Cut down! But those cables which irritated TTC members to the max and they are still there! P.S. I just checked Dwight's photos for today and he has about4 pictures of the missing telephone pole! I guess we were expecting wires up high and not the disappearance of that dreaded pole!
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Post by Gokhan on Jun 3, 2013 20:53:17 GMT -8
::)I thought I was tripping but that cursed by transit fans telephone pole is Gone! Cut down! But those cables which irritated TTC members to the max and they are still there! P.S. I just checked Dwight's photos for today and he has about4 pictures of the missing telephone pole! I guess we were expecting wires up high and not the disappearance of that dreaded pole! They are now down to only three cables. In addition a support wire for a pole that was in the way is also gone. They are working everyday. They are still two weeks away from finishing their last bridge support. Meanwhile, I believe they will be able to relocate the remaining three cables. Raising the cables didn't seem to work though and the last three remaining cables, which are directly in the way, need to be relocated within two weeks in order not to cause any delays.
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Post by culvercitylocke on Jun 4, 2013 9:53:38 GMT -8
This might be a dumb question, but did 30/10 ever pass, or is it still in legislative limbo. I can't seem to google it because of the name change to AFF.
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Post by Gokhan on Jun 4, 2013 12:42:27 GMT -8
This might be a dumb question, but did 30/10 ever pass, or is it still in legislative limbo. I can't seem to google it because of the name change to AFF. Good question but doesn't belong to this thread.
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Post by Gokhan on Jun 4, 2013 12:45:02 GMT -8
The permanent clearance of the Palms/National/Exposition Blvd Bridge is 14 ft 6 in. roadtrainer, don't drive a double-decker under it.
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Post by Gokhan on Jun 4, 2013 12:48:42 GMT -8
Palms retaining wall is now being extended to the abutment. There will also be a wall and some rooms inside it by the freeway where currently there are temporary shoring plates and I beams:
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Post by Transit Coalition on Jun 4, 2013 13:24:26 GMT -8
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Post by bzcat on Jun 4, 2013 14:36:27 GMT -8
Nothing going on at Motor... at least not from what I can see.
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Post by Gokhan on Jun 4, 2013 17:47:03 GMT -8
Nothing going on at Motor... at least not from what I can see. My pic above shows the embankment with land markers. Not much going on at the moment otherwise though.
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Post by Gokhan on Jun 4, 2013 18:03:25 GMT -8
Two rare, never-seen-before photos showing the work between Culver City and Palms Stations. Looking east toward the Culver City Station from Bagley Avenue, notice the track bed and the train at the platform ahead: Looking west from Bagley Avenue to Palms Station. There is a retaining wall starting slightly more than a block away for the approach ramp. Note how mild the slope is, almost level:
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f ron
Full Member
Posts: 222
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Post by f ron on Jun 4, 2013 18:12:42 GMT -8
Great shots! It never ceases to interest me how while some of the line's developement are so far advanced (Palms/National Bridge!) there still remain the portions that have hardly been touched.
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