Category: Construction

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Construction Stations

May snow fall and cold winds blow…

Although the forecast is for a cold winter this year, our vivaNext Highway 7 construction schedule calls for us to keep going at full-speed, even while it’s snowy out there. Here’s an overview of what we’re going to be working on this winter along Highway 7, and how we’ll manage to keep going when the temperatures drop.

There’s no doubt that some work – like paving – is best done when it’s warm. So the first rule of project management is to plan the work schedule many months in advance, so work can progress without interruption through all seasons. That means we do the work that has to be done when it’s warmer – such as paving or landscaping – when it’s warm, and use the winter for tasks that can be done at any time of the year.

This winter, our focus will be on continuing with the stations along Highway 7 and on the towers connecting Bayview to Highway 7, leaving the road work and landscaping for next spring.

At the Bayview towers our goal is to enclose the south tower before Christmas, including getting the roof on and the glass installed. Once the space is enclosed but not heated, we’ll do some interior work including elevators and electrical work. And when the towers have permanent power, we can warm up the interior using temporary industrial space heaters. Then we’ll start to install tiling and hand railings, both of which use grout which requires warmer temperatures.

For the stations along Highway 7, working in the winter requires some additional measures which allow us to keep going. One design advantage we have is that our station platform foundations are built with concrete piers sunk into the ground, rather than a compacted granular base which would be a challenge in the winter. We’ll be able to dig the holes for the piers throughout the winter by heating the subsurface before pouring concrete. After the pour, the concrete is covered with insulated blankets and heated with diesel-fired “frost-fighter” heaters. These heaters – about five times as powerful as a typical home furnace – provide enough heat to help concrete cure, even when it’s cold. And when we know it’s going to snow, the entire platform is covered with tarps to keep the snow off our work site.

So with a lot of advance planning, we’ll be able to continue pouring the foundations and platforms throughout the winter. Come next spring we can get back to the road work and landscaping, with our goal unchanged of having the first section of the Highway 7 rapidway operational in 2013.

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Construction

Changing seasons, shifting lanes

photo: Keith Bridge now - Keith Bridge next

Even if you live in Newmarket, you may not know exactly where the Keith Bridge is. It’s on Davis Drive, just east of the Tannery and the Seniors’ Meeting Place. Pedestrians probably notice when they walk over it, but drivers would barely notice that they’re driving over a bridge. It spans the Holland River, and is named after William Keith [1869-1949], a Newmarket Reeve, an MPP and a Senior Magistrate in the early 1900s.

In 2011, we built a new section of bridge on the south side of Davis Drive, and now we’re about to start rebuilding the north side of the bridge. To allow us to work on the north side, we need to shift traffic to drive on the new south section of bridge.

As eastbound traffic approaches the bridge, the lanes will start to shift starting near the railway tracks. Just west of Bayview Parkway, westbound traffic will be reduced from two lanes to one, and will begin to shift to the south.

This work will last about a year, and will involve all kinds of work, including relocating utilities and bus stops, installing temporary traffic signals, and paving lanes and a temporary sidewalk on the new bridge section. The Tom Taylor Trail has been detoured since construction began on the Keith Bridge, and this detour will continue for most of the construction.

Construction, especially bridge construction, isn’t easy, but it helps if you know what will be happening, and when. If you sign up for construction updates we’ll make sure you know about upcoming work on Davis Drive. You can also visit vivanext.com for detailed project information, and follow us on Twitter. Michelle Dudzik, our Community Liaison, is available to talk about Davis Drive construction and answer any questions you may have: 905.716.7663, michelle.dudzik@york.ca.

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Construction Rapidways Stations

Building for the future: here comes the first Highway 7 rapidway station

Installing vivastation canopies along Highway 7If you’ve been driving along Highway 7 East lately, you’ll notice an exciting development taking shape on our Highway 7 rapidway: the installation of the first of 22 vivastations.

And like everything else on the vivaNext project, the station that we’re going to be building in the median at Leslie and Highway 7 is the product of literally years of design, planning and preparation. Here’s a primer on the stations, and how they’ll be installed.

Like their predecessor at Warden Station on Enterprise Boulevard, our vivastations along Highway 7 are going to be beautiful, strong and very functional. The curved viva blue glass that makes up the canopy is surprisingly rugged – this glass is curved, tempered and laminated for strength, which prevents it from breaking into sharp pieces if it is cracked or broken. Reliability was our first priority in sourcing the manufacturer: our glass panels are actually being made by the company that makes nearly half of the world’s windshield glass.

Although the canopy is made up of nearly 100 individual panes of glass, each will be connected to its neighbour by small fasteners, known as “spiders” – so visually, the glass will look like it’s all one piece.

Supporting the glass underneath is a three-piece structure made of Canadian-fabricated steel, constructed just outside of Paris, Ontario. With durability in mind, the steel will be finished with a high-quality automotive-grade paint to minimize long-term maintenance costs.

Before the station components are delivered, a concrete platform is poured and set, and the connections built into the platform are prepared.  Then the canopy’s three steel structural sections are brought in on a wide-load tractor trailer and  installed. It takes about a week to align the sections perfectly and do some other prep, in advance of the glass being delivered and installed.

Each station includes two platforms/canopies – one for eastbound passengers and one for westbound passengers. Our schedule calls for the construction of one station canopy a month, with eastbound and then westbound canopies being built along the Highway 7 East rapidway throughout the rest of this year. There are a number of steps involved in getting the platforms ready before the glass and steel can be delivered; each platform requires about 12 weeks of work including excavations, installing electrical cables and concrete work.

One of the strategic decisions we made in the beginning for the vivaNext program is to build our rapidway segments consecutively, enabling our designers and construction experts to assess the experience of the previous segment and continually fine tune the design and construction methods. Lessons learned from our experience building the Warden Station have helped us find ways to modify the design, to make the canopies easier and more efficient to install. And because minimizing traffic impacts along the Highway 7 corridor is so critically important, our team has focused on finding strategies to install these huge canopies in a very small space with minimal lane closures.

Beyond providing rapid transit users with a comfortable and convenient experience, our vivastations are going to give a defining look and feel to Highway 7, as it becomes increasingly urbanized and developed over the next few years. We think that’s a milestone that’s really worth celebrating.

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Community Events Construction Rapidways Uncategorized

Davis Drive rapidway construction – ready, set, go!

Davis Drive rapidway construction

Last year we accomplished a lot on Davis Drive, and as of this spring we’ll be moving full speed ahead on construction to build the rapidway. Starting soon, you’ll see a lot of utility companies along the corridor working to relocate gas, power, telecommunications, etc. Later this summer, we’ll be working on the Keith Bridge near the Tannery and doing some work near Southlake hospital. Watch for updates about all of this work, with more details to come.

 The Davis Drive rapidway will be complete in 2015, and we’re bringing an exceptional rapid transit system that will connect to other parts of York Region and help shape Newmarket’s growth. There’s a lot of work happening until 2015, and during construction we’ll do our best to keep disruptions to a minimum. We also want to keep everyone informed, so if you have questions or concerns we hope you’ll contact your Community Liaison, sign up for updates to get the latest construction information and come to our Davis Drive open house on May 15.

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Construction Going Green Uncategorized

Protecting our trees to keep York Region green

Crew works on transplanting trees
Tree buds are an early sign of spring, their canopies are beautifully green in the summer, and we all love their colours in the fall. For many of us, the mature trees on our streets and woodlots are attractive features of York Region’s established neighbourhoods.

So when we develop the rapidway construction schedule and plan, in addition to all the other construction tasks, one of our priorities is to protect and actually increase the number of trees along our routes.

As we design and build our rapidways along Highway 7 and Davis Drive in Newmarket, here’s what we’re doing to take care of the trees we have, and plan for new ones to ensure they continue to thrive into the future.

To start with, we all have a shared commitment to making sure our construction activities minimize impacts to our natural environment. This is a formal commitment that is made early on, in the Environmental Assessments that need to be completed and approved, long before work can begin.

One of our commitments is that our construction activities minimize impacts on trees. At the stage of final design for a rapidway segment, we walk the route with our Arborists to do a careful inventory of all the trees, inspecting each and tagging them, to make sure every tree is included in our construction drawings.

For those trees that are near the construction right-of-way, we look at ways to protect them by installing special protective fencing. We will also look at alternative construction methods where we can to work around a tree, or avoid harming its roots or branches.

For trees that are in the construction right-of-way, we identify any trees that could be safely dug up and replanted somewhere else. Then we work with the local community to identify locations to transplant the trees.

There are some trees that just can’t be saved, either due to a tree’s poor health or other factors. But our commitment is that for every tree we remove, we will replace it with at least one – if not more – new trees.

So this means that once the Highway 7 and Davis Drive rapidway projects are complete, there will be 45% more trees along Highway 7 East and nearly 27% more trees along Davis Drive. Highway 7 and Davis Drive will each be significantly greener when we’re done, and all in all, this adds up to more spring buds, and more fall leaves, for us all to enjoy in the future.

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Construction

VivaNext’s underground world

Underground conduit being installed

Recently at one of our weekly project meetings, I was thinking about how much time our designers and field engineers spend discussing and planning for things that are invisible to most people, and in many cases aren’t even directly related to our rapid transit project.

Every foot of our design work for the vivaNext construction project has had to take into consideration a dizzying array of underground utilities, their service connections to customers and residents, and unknown buried utility lines that may or may not be abandoned. Interfering with or changing any of those elements isn’t an option, because they’re part of the critically important infrastructure that everyone living or working in our Region depends on. We need to either work around them, relocate them, or bury them even deeper before we can do our own work.

So here’s a primer on everything located out of sight, in the underground world of vivaNext construction.

First, let’s think about all the things that everyone needs – water, electricity, heat, sanitation. In York Region, the larger the infrastructure the deeper into the ground it goes. All utilities need to be a minimum of 1 metre below ground.

Storm sewers are installed 2 metres below the curb while watermains are placed under the middle of roads at depths of 4 metres or more. There are two main water lines on the north and sound sides of Hwy 7, as well as storm sewers running up every street Highway 7 intersects.

Gas mains are installed 1.5 metres deep as close to property lines as possible, and when they cross under roads and creeks they’re as deep as 2.5 metres.

Telecommunication conduits can be installed in the boulevard at a depth of 1 metre due to their smaller size. As the population grows, so does the demand for telecommunication services, so quick access to these lines is important.

Then there are all the other things people want in their homes. How about a phone line? Or a line for your computer? And don’t forget the cable you need to watch your favourite TV show. During our construction projects, we’re coordinating with all the private telecommunications companies, as well as York Telecommunications Network (YTN) which provides connectivity to Viva bus stops. Where a lot of telecommunications lines need to be installed, they’re placed in a concrete encased duct bank.

And then there are the culverts, catch basins, manhole covers, oil grit separators for the storm sewers, and the fire hydrants. Add the underground elements for our landscaping, including tree soil cells and irrigation lines, plus foundations for bridges and other structures. That pretty much covers the main elements that are underground – and we didn’t even mention the utility work taking place above ground!

So if you ever thought it was taking a long time for us to begin building the above ground part of the project, you’ll know why we devote so much time to locating, designing around, and in some cases relocating, underground components before we can build on the surface.

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Construction Stations

Winter work

Warden Station in Markham - Winter construction in 2010-2011

This winter has been unusually warm so far, but we probably can’t count on the balmy temperatures continuing all the way through until spring. But at the same time, our vivaNext rapidway construction schedule requires that we make good progress during winter. Although it might be surprising to see construction happening in winter, some work will be taking place – with a little modification to our warmer weather construction methods.

Over the winter, work continues along the boulevards on Highway 7 East, and we’ll build the foundations for the first three rapidway stations at West Beaver Creek Road, Leslie Street and East Beaver Creek Road.

Much of the work we’re doing involves concrete, which doesn’t actually dry but cures through its own internal chemical reaction that creates heat. If the concrete cools down too quickly, it won’t cure properly. So the crews must ensure the ground is warm enough before the concrete is placed, to enable the concrete to begin its own heating process. Once those chemical reactions get going, it keeps itself warm, and all we need to do is keep it insulated while it cures.

In areas where we need to excavate earth, we dig out the first few inches of frozen ground – with these milder temperatures the frost generally only extends down through the first six inches of soil. Then, using ground heaters, we blow hot air into the excavation to warm it up, and cover it with tarps. The concrete is then poured, and the tarps are kept on the concrete until it is cured. The concrete is tested to ensure it has properly set and meets our specifications.

By using these techniques, we will be able to continue work throughout the winter on the boulevards, and construct the six platforms at the three stations.

In the boulevards, we will continue to install the Cupolex® forms for the tree soil cells, which are excavated and then covered with concrete. On the station platforms, crews will augur shallow holes to pour the concrete caissons (foundations) for the platforms, then pour the concrete platform slabs on top of these foundations.

Plenty of work is happening this year for both Highway 7 East and Davis Drive, and there’s still lots of work left to do. But by continuing construction through the winter, we’ll be moving closer to finishing the Highway 7 rapidway.

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Construction General

Davis Drive – noticeable change in 2011

Davis Drive in 2011

Davis Drive was a busy place in 2011, with lots of noticeable work done to prepare for rapidway construction. Rapidways will be built from Yonge Street to just past the hospital, and most of our work has been along this section.

Davis Drive will be widened starting in 2012, and we needed to do a few big things first: build retaining walls, widen the Keith Bridge, and relocate utilities.

Widening Davis Drive will mean moving sidewalks and boulevards farther apart. In locations along the south side of Davis Drive where the ground slopes toward the road, retaining walls were needed so that we can move utilities. Five retaining walls are now built using stone blocks or textured concrete, with railings to be added to walls over two feet in height.

A new section of the Keith Bridge was built in 2011, including 106 tonnes of rebar steel reinforcements, and 110 truckloads of poured cement. Even though the final touches are still to come, the historical architectural features are noticeable in the new bridge construction. The Keith Bridge will be fenced this winter, and traffic will move to this bridge section at a later date.

Utilities, such as hydro, gas, sewage, and telecommunication lines, need to be moved to prepare for road widening, and in some cases they needed to be relocated as part of the Keith Bridge or retaining wall construction. Geotechnical testing – examining the condition and consistency of road and boulevard surfaces – has also been underway along Davis Drive so that our engineers know what to plan for when they widen the road.

This winter our contractors are working on 2012 construction schedules and continuing with utility relocation and geotechnical testing. When warmer weather arrives we’ll be ready to begin widening Davis Drive, and you’ll begin to see the overall transformation of Davis Drive into a welcoming urban place.

Happy Holidays everyone – we’ll see you in 2012!

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Construction General

Highway 7 East: snapshot of 2011

2011 snapshot

If you’ve travelled along Highway 7 between Bayview and Warden during 2011, you’ll agree that construction has been underway for most of this year. The Highway 7 East rapidway project has firm timelines, and our contractors have been working hard to stay on schedule.

Earlier in the year, we removed the median from the centre of the road, installed a new watermain and started to relocate the utilities. Recently we’ve been installing landscape irrigation systems and continuing to relocate utilities. The construction between Bayview and Warden is part of a segment of rapidway that will connect to Warden Station, the first fully-built rapid transit vivastation, that opened for service in March, 2011.

We’re just finishing up widening Highway 7 on both sides between Bayview and Highway 404, and we have important changes to traffic patterns at intersections for both drivers and pedestrians. These changes are part of the next phase of construction, providing workers enough room to build the rapidway, and platforms and canopies of rapid transit stations.

Starting next week at the intersections of West Beaver Creek Road, Leslie Street, and East Beaver Creek Road, a dedicated left-turn signal is being added. This new signal will enable drivers to turn left and make U-turns only when no other traffic is moving. Left turns will no longer be permitted when oncoming traffic has the green light.

Wider roads mean wider intersections, so a two-stage pedestrian crossing will also be added. Pedestrians walking at a normal pace will cross to the centre island and wait for the next signal before reaching the other side. Once the rapidway is complete, this centre island is also where Viva passengers will be able to access a rapid transit station.

This has been an exciting beginning to an overall transformation of the corridor which will help shape our growing community for generations. We have many new goals to look forward to in 2012, and as we pass each milestone, the rapid transit network and welcoming streetscape will take shape.

Categories
Construction Going Green Urban Planning

New technology takes root: helping trees grow

Diagram and photo of Cupolex

Among the beautiful benefits of the vivaNext project will be the improvements we’re going to make to the streetscape along York Region’s key corridors. A key part of those improvements will be carefully planned landscaping, including street trees planted at regular intervals for beauty and shade. Ensuring those trees survive in a tough urban environment is always a challenge, which is where science and technology come in.

Fortunately, our Landscape Architects are up to the challenge, and have tricks up their sleeves to keep our trees healthy and growing strong. To begin with, choosing the right tree is critical. Street trees, especially ones along roads carrying a lot of fast-moving traffic, need to be the kind that can stand up to salt spray and pollution from vehicles. Street trees also need to be relatively drought tolerant, and able to thrive without daily maintenance.

To meet these needs, our Arborist and Landscape Architects focused on a range of hardy trees, including different types of gingko, oak, maple, common hackberry, Kentucky coffee tree, ornamental pear and elm.

Once they’d solved the issue of which trees to plant, Landscape Architects turned to the other big problem facing urban plantings: large trees need a lot of soil around their roots. In a boulevard, there’s only so much room for soil, so trees generally don’t have the underground space they need to grow strong roots and take in nutrients. Our team is using an ingenious solution called “soil cell technology.” This refers to the cutting-edge approach of constructing a rigid form underground that can be filled with soil and then covered up by sidewalks or even roads.

Our soil cell technology is called Cupolex®, and was originally designed as a technique to provide a solid underground framework for ductwork and cables. At first glance it looks like a plastic patio table, with hollow legs at each corner. A series of these patio tables are installed underground, with their legs interlocking, forming a large honeycomb shape – a soil cell – surrounding where the tree will be planted. Then concrete is poured into the legs and over the top, creating a hard, self-supporting shell strong enough to support the weight of vehicles. The boulevard and sidewalks are constructed right over top, with openings left for planting trees. Special access hatches and irrigation pipes are installed for future tree maintenance, and then nutrient-rich soil is blown in, and trees are planted in the openings.

We’re not talking a regularly sized planter full of soil: each soil cell holds at least 16 cubic metres of soil. And each cubic metre is about the size of a stove, so imagine 16 stoves worth of soil for each tree! A typical dump truck holds 8-10 cubic metres, so each tree is going to get more than a dump truck of soil. That’s a lot of soil, and it’s really going to help our trees’ survivability.

Our vivaNext pledge is to do the best planning now, for a beautiful and functional rapid transit system and streetscape. Creating healthy, strong trees that can be enjoyed for generations is part of that, and it’s something we can all be proud of.