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Post by Alexis Kasperavičius on Oct 25, 2013 5:30:47 GMT -8
A few weeks old, but nice vid of bridge being placed in time lapse.
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Post by bzcat on Oct 25, 2013 10:11:09 GMT -8
From the look look of the presentation, the street running won't be that bad. I still think the line would have been just as visible elevated, that isn't a good reason for street running. Reduced cost should be the reason to build street running, and itseems the money was there or could have been aquired. Either way, speed should be more important than visibility. At least this doesn't look like it will be another flower st, because the left turns will be restricted and there are no freeway ramps nearby. I'm not worried about it being a Flower Street, more like another Long Beach Blue Line situation where the lights are prioritized for car traffic and not the light rail. That's why I mentioned earlier that it's a good sign that Santa Monica is giving Colorado Blvd a road diet so Expo will be the primary vehicle on this road. Most of the street crossing on Colorado after 17th street are small or minor roads except Lincoln Blvd, so that will be the one to watch.
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Post by RMoses on Oct 25, 2013 11:13:15 GMT -8
I'm not worried about it being a Flower Street, more like another Long Beach Blue Line situation where the lights are prioritized for car traffic and not the light rail. That's why I mentioned earlier that it's a good sign that Santa Monica is giving Colorado Blvd a road diet so Expo will be the primary vehicle on this road. Most of the street crossing on Colorado after 17th street are small or minor roads except Lincoln Blvd, so that will be the one to watch. Colorado Ave. crossings are a lot busier than they seem. In the street running section, the 16th St crossing has been completely eliminated, as well as access to eastbound Colorado from, 15th, Euclid, 12th, 10th, and 9th. This will create additional trips crossing both 17th and 14th as they are significant north south routes since they cross the freeway, 11th also to a lessor degree. Unfortunately the proximity of the freeway on and off-ramps on Lincoln don't call for signal priority on Expo here; signal priority could be granted at 11th IMO but seems that is it. 7th St. is the Lincoln Blvd alternate and is also the new home to the local post office; 6th is the BBB Depot and 5th is a major freeway off-ramp. The greatest time savings will be the elimination of left turns, but seems excessive as you can not access the post office from Colorado Ave.
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Post by Gokhan on Oct 25, 2013 11:31:10 GMT -8
Guys, the only really important thing in traffic-signal-controlled light-rail operations is operator competence. Find a good operator -- she/he will beat the schedule by 5 minutes or more. If he/she is incompetent -- good luck.
In my experience, female operators are more competent and a lot faster than the male operators.
They always sync and will always sync the signals. There will always be one signal red along the way. If the operator runs into one red, he/she will catch the remaining greens as long as he/she is competent. So, it's more operator training than signal syncing. They should be told that dwelling at the station for 5 seconds more will cost them a whole minute because they will miss their green. The signal sync is very tight and unforgiving of the operators who dwell for 25 seconds instead of 15 - 20 seconds or travel a few MPH below the speed limit instead of exactly at the speed limit.
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Post by Gokhan on Oct 25, 2013 11:33:35 GMT -8
Sunday night falsework removal for the Venice Blvd Bridge starts. Here is the status as of today: Out-of-focus one:
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Post by darrell on Oct 25, 2013 12:13:07 GMT -8
Most of Colorado is actively under construction in Santa Monica now, with utility relocation, new curbs on the south side, and now OCS pole footings between 14th and 17th (yesterday 9/18/13 photos). [...] First OCS pole footings are at 15th Street. Here are three photos from 10/7/13 to fill in from the above with new progress on the Colorado track construction west of 14th (it looked the same when I took my 10/19 photos). The K-rail section has moved west to 11th Street. Note both the cleared center for track construction and the new curb and sidewalk on the right. And more utility relocation at 7th Street (photo is also for the old building and big palm trees at the corner that I like).
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Post by Gokhan on Oct 25, 2013 12:52:27 GMT -8
Thanks for the pics, Darrell. I wonder if the bottleneck of the construction project will be Colorado Ave utilities or Pico Blvd Bridge.
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Post by Gokhan on Oct 26, 2013 11:38:21 GMT -8
Last view of the Venice Blvd Bridge with all the falsework on, looking east: Falsework-removal work will start Sunday night and take three work weeks. They will move from the west end to the east end, in two passes.
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Post by Gokhan on Oct 27, 2013 19:24:52 GMT -8
Expo Line Westwood / Rancho Park Station platform is now finished:
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Post by Gokhan on Oct 27, 2013 20:47:02 GMT -8
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Post by TransportationZ on Oct 28, 2013 6:48:24 GMT -8
In my experience, female operators are more competent and a lot faster than the male operators. Glad I'm not the only one that noticed this. This also applies to buses as well. Female operators tend to make yellow lights, male operators seem to want to slam on their breaks even when the light turns yellow they are 10 feet from the line. I also think that it is a male operator thing to noticeably drive below the speed limit. (I actually have a speed tracker app on my phone.)
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Post by skater on Oct 28, 2013 9:03:36 GMT -8
Gokhan thanks for those pictures, it looks like good progress is being made. From the angle you got it, it looks as if there isn't enough room for the trains to pass under the freeway, but I'm sure they have calculated all of it out.
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Post by bzcat on Oct 28, 2013 11:38:51 GMT -8
It's really exciting to actually see the Rancho Park station platforms
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Post by Gokhan on Oct 28, 2013 12:53:58 GMT -8
Thanks, skater. The clearance of the Sawtelle Blvd Bridge was discussed earlier in this thread. It will be 18 ft once it's posttensioned and then lowered onto the abutment and column.
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Post by culvercitylocke on Oct 28, 2013 14:54:47 GMT -8
I've lived about a half mile from the Westwood blvd station and never knew the area was called rancho park.
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Post by Gokhan on Oct 28, 2013 15:34:20 GMT -8
Rancho Park is the greater area around there, loosely defined as between Overland and I-405 and between Olympic and National. The immediate area is called Westwood Gardens and West of Westwood (east and west of Westwood Blvd, respectively). Zev kinda messed up the name of this station with a last-minute motion.
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Post by Gokhan on Oct 28, 2013 15:41:16 GMT -8
Testing and start-up is actually very important and complicated. They need to not only ensure safety but also tune the signals for smooth, fast, and efficient operations. Also, operators and operations room need to be trained. I wouldn't like them to hurry up and open the line before it's completely tuned and ensured safe. One at-grade-crossing accident early on could have bad consequences. Phase 1 has been extremely safe and let's hope that Phase 2, despite most Westsiders being inherently ignorant of trains and probably also more oblivious in general, will be extremely safe as well.
So, will four months be enough testing? Not necessarily.
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Post by masonite on Oct 28, 2013 20:23:22 GMT -8
Testing and start-up is actually very important and complicated. They need to not only ensure safety but also tune the signals for smooth, fast, and efficient operations. Also, operators and operations room need to be trained. I wouldn't like them to hurry up and open the line before it's completely tuned and ensured safe. One at-grade-crossing accident early on could have bad consequences. Phase 1 has been extremely safe and let's hope that Phase 2, despite most Westsiders being inherently ignorant of trains and probably also more oblivious in general, will be extremely safe as well. So, will four months be enough testing? Not necessarily. Yeah, I thought they counted on at least 6 months. From the start of weight and clearance testing to operated training to full prerevenue, I think 4 months might be aggressive.
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Post by bzcat on Oct 29, 2013 10:38:02 GMT -8
Rancho Park is the greater area around there, loosely defined as between Overland and I-405 and between Olympic and National. The immediate area is called Westwood Gardens and West of Westwood (east and west of Westwood Blvd, respectively). Zev kinda messed up the name of this station with a last-minute motion. Rancho Park also includes area east of Overland that is not part of Cheviot Hills. Rancho Park is roughly the part of zip code 90064 that is east of 405 freeway. I used to live near Pico/Beverly Glen and that area is definitely part of Rancho Park. The area west of 405 freeway in 90064 is technically in Rancho Park if you go by US Post Office definition but locally, that area is often associated with Mar Vista or Sawtelle.
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Post by Gokhan on Oct 29, 2013 11:28:42 GMT -8
Rancho Park is the greater area around there, loosely defined as between Overland and I-405 and between Olympic and National. The immediate area is called Westwood Gardens and West of Westwood (east and west of Westwood Blvd, respectively). Zev kinda messed up the name of this station with a last-minute motion. Rancho Park also includes area east of Overland that is not part of Cheviot Hills. Rancho Park is roughly the part of zip code 90064 that is east of 405 freeway. I used to live near Pico/Beverly Glen and that area is definitely part of Rancho Park. The area west of 405 freeway in 90064 is technically in Rancho Park if you go by US Post Office definition but locally, that area is often associated with Mar Vista or Sawtelle. What you mean by US Postal Service definition is zipcode 90064, which also includes several areas such as Cheviot Hills and parts of Mar Vista and Westside Village, as well as part of West LA. Similarly zipcode 90034 includes most or all of Palms and part of Castle Heights. I would call east of Overland and north of Exposition, as well as east of Dunleer Place and south of Exposition, Cheviot Hills, despite not being in the boundaries of Cheviot Hills HOA: Cheviot Hills HOA boundariesHOA boundaries are not the same as neighborhood boundaries and quite often between two HOAs there is a block that is no-man's-land. This area includes neighborhoods known as: Palms, Cheviot Hills, California Country Club Estates, Beverlywood, Castle Heights, South Robertson, Westwood Gardens, West of Westwood, Westside Village, Mar Vista, Sawtelle, Home Junction, West LA, Tract 7260, Rancho Park, and so on. They are not necessarily mutually exclusive and I am probably missing quite a few.
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Post by rajacobs on Oct 29, 2013 14:57:14 GMT -8
I think that conventionally the north-south boundary line between Cheviot and Beverlywood is either Shelby Drive or Castle Heights and south of the freeway is Palms. ...So in Cheviot I'd include everything to the northwest from Shelby & National or Castle Heights and National. Everything to the northeast of either corner as Beverlywood. (The area between the freeway and Manning would also be Cheviot and between the Freeway and National, who knows...
Thus the Palms station serves 3 communities: Palms, Cheviot and Beverlywood.
P.S. I agree, the map above is simply an organization's boundaries and depicts only the west side of Cheviot. Additionally as a depiction of the neighborhood it's bogus because it arbitrarily cuts CH of north of Patricia and east of Motor above Patricia and suggests the park goes much farther south than it does.
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Post by Gokhan on Oct 29, 2013 17:18:57 GMT -8
In the above map, the blank area in the southeast is the California Country Club Estates. The story is that this golf course was sold in 1951 and divided into 410 lots. It looks like where you are living just north of the new Palms Station is an unaffiliated land adjacent to the California Country Club Estates HOA. I agree that all three neighborhoods (CHHOA, CCCHA, and your area) are geographically considered in Cheviot Hills in the present-day convention. The area what is known as Beverlywood today was apparently considered as part of Cheviot Hills back in the days but they now have a separate HOA there.
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Post by bzcat on Oct 30, 2013 11:23:19 GMT -8
I would call east of Overland and north of Exposition, as well as east of Dunleer Place and south of Exposition, Cheviot Hills, despite not being in the boundaries of Cheviot Hills HOA: East of Dunleer and South of Exposition (basically area south and east of Overland Elementary) is part of Cheviot Hills. That I agree. The area east of Overland between Pico and Exposition (basically area north of Overland Elementary) is debatable. As someone who lived there for many years, the neighborhood definitely self-identifies as Rancho Park. Only their real estate agents would even try to refer to that area as Cheviot Hills. But my point is that Rancho Park doesn't end at Overland... The area North of Pico between Overland and Fox Studios has nothing to do with Cheviot Hills and is unambiguously Rancho Park. North of Olympic, they fancy themselves as in "Westwood", which is another can of warms.
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f ron
Full Member
Posts: 222
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Post by f ron on Oct 30, 2013 12:21:06 GMT -8
East of Dunleer and South of Exposition (basically area south and east of Overland Elementary) is part of Cheviot Hills... As someone who lives on Dunleer Place which is techincally Cheviot Hills yet is considered by the Cheviot Hills nieghbors to be Rancho Park I must say this is what's known as "living on the other side of the tracks".
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Post by Gokhan on Oct 30, 2013 12:30:20 GMT -8
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Post by darrell on Oct 30, 2013 14:48:52 GMT -8
New from Santa Monica yesterday afternoon... You can see some rebars sticking up for the terminus station, seen from 5th and Colorado. All the falsework is down from the Olympic-Cloverfield bridge. This is what it will look like for the rest of our lives, with trains passing above! Looking west from Stewart the rails and OCS pole footings await ballast and ties. Looking east from Stewart the old Verizon buildings are demolished - leaving just their south wall as a construction fence - and excavation of the southwest corner created this pile of dirt. Zoomed in toward the Centinela bridge.
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Post by Gokhan on Oct 30, 2013 15:00:26 GMT -8
Thanks for the terminus-station update, Darrell!
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Post by Gokhan on Oct 30, 2013 22:11:31 GMT -8
Very, very, very big news from the Expo community meeting tonight. I will post it tomorrow.
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Post by Alexis Kasperavičius on Oct 31, 2013 1:22:29 GMT -8
Thanks for the great shots Gökhan & Darrell, nice to see it coming along and anxious to see the first rails down!
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Post by bzcat on Oct 31, 2013 9:34:01 GMT -8
East of Dunleer and South of Exposition (basically area south and east of Overland Elementary) is part of Cheviot Hills... As someone who lives on Dunleer Place which is techincally Cheviot Hills yet is considered by the Cheviot Hills nieghbors to be Rancho Park I must say this is what's known as "living on the other side of the tracks". Ha ha... so true.
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