Category: General

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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 General

Working together to keep everyone safe

vivaNext construction signs

During the preliminary engineering phase of the vivaNext rapidway construction projects, as you might expect, our focus was on the design of our roadways, boulevards and stations. Now that we’re in active construction along Highway 7 and Davis Drive, one of our top priorities is safety – both for the public and for our workers. Our contractors have very detailed protocols for the steps they need to follow to keep their crews and members of the public safe, and ensuring safety is something we think everyone should take seriously.

The main challenge, as I previously mentioned in a blog about construction staging, is that our work has to happen on the edges and in the middle of some very busy roads. Closing all or part of Highway 7 isn’t an option, so our strategy there was to create as much separation as possible between active construction zones, and drivers and pedestrians. We created this separation by shifting the lanes away from the shoulders of the road, giving our workers more room to work, store materials and use heavy equipment.

To make sure everyone knows where the work zones are, we’ve posted signs and installed fences to clearly show that some areas are off-limits to pedestrians and drivers. We’ve put in place temporary sidewalks and temporary bus stops to ensure pedestrians have a clear path around work zones, and signs to make sure drivers can find temporary entrances to businesses and addresses. Every single crew member working for us is reminded and drilled regularly on what they need to be doing to stay safe, and keep you safe too.

Most drivers and pedestrians follow signs and stay away from construction areas, but sometimes pedestrians try to take shortcuts through work zones. It may seem like there’s little risk to doing this, but the reality is that work zones are filled with potential hazards for those who aren’t trained and wearing safety gear. Unexpectedly entering a construction site can put you and others at risk. Wires just below the surface, sharp objects, uneven ground and other hazards can lead to injuries. And the risk of walking near or around heavy equipment or vehicles, especially when they’re backing up, needs no explanation. Our crews know all the potential hazards, which is why they follow safety procedures and wear protective, highly-visible clothing, headgear and footwear at all times.

We hope every member of the public will respect this need for safety as well, and do the following:

>> Consider construction sites out of bounds, at all times – even when workers aren’t on site. Fences and no entry signs are there for a reason, even if you can’t see the reason.

>> Follow signs for temporary pathways or detours, even if the original route seems to still be available. We know your time is important and we wouldn’t create a detour if it wasn’t absolutely necessary.

As we go about our projects, we know that our construction disrupts the life of pedestrians, transit riders and drivers, and we do everything we can to do that as little as possible by keeping as many sidewalks, transit stops and traffic lanes open as we can, and minimizing detours and delays.

We hope that as you pass by our construction areas you’ll keep safety in mind too, and help us keep everyone safe.

Categories
General Rapidways Subways

York Region is ready to Presto

PRESTO card and fare machine

In London, it’s an Oyster. In Hong Kong, they call it an Octopus. Boston has its Charlie Card, and Atlanta loves its Breeze. And now York Region – along with other GTHA and Ottawa municipalities – is moving into the ranks of cities with smartcard technology for their transit system.

I’m talking of course about the launch of PRESTO this week in York Region on YRT\Viva services. PRESTO was developed through a partnership with the Province of Ontario, GO Transit and nine municipal transit partners in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area and in Ottawa, and will allow customers to ride on any participating transit system without pre-purchasing printed tickets or tokens.

Having access to PRESTO is great news for transit riders in York Region. Because PRESTO uses “stored-value” fare payments, customers can reload their card on the PRESTO website or at designated locations, and never have to worry about having a printed ticket or the right change. All you have to do is tap your card either on the PRESTO card reader at a vivastation before you board Viva, or on the on-board PRESTO machine on a YRT bus, and the system will automatically deduct the fare from your card’s balance (GO Transit riders also tap off at the end of their trip).

Smartcards are the way of the future for all great transit systems, and with good reason. These cards speed up the process of buying transit fares, they eliminate the paper waste associated with tickets, and they mean you’ll never need to rummage through your pockets for bus fare again.

One of the most important, long-term benefits is that, because smartcards often involve multiple transit services, they make it easier for passengers to travel across municipal boundaries. Instead of needing to purchase individual tickets for separate transit services, PRESTO is the only ticket riders will need to use on any participating system, including YRT\Viva, GO Transit (selected rail stations), Brampton Transit (ZÜM), Burlington Transit, Hamilton Street Railway, Mississauga Transit (MiWay), Oakville Transit, OC Transpo (Ottawa) and at select  TTC subway stations. And more stations and transit agencies are joining PRESTO throughout 2011 and 2012.

The PRESTO website and call centre (1-8-PRESTO-123) have all the information you’ll need to learn more about how PRESTO works in general, and where it can take you.

To introduce riders to PRESTO, YRT\Viva has representatives showing riders how to use PRESTO, helping them register online, and distributing up to 5,000 specially-priced cards. To get your new PRESTO card, check out the YRT\Viva website for distribution locations and hours.

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General

Celebrating Canadian transit

Examples of Canadian transit systems

With Canada Day just behind us, this is a great time to talk about the emerging enthusiasm across Canada for the importance of great transit.  If you’ve ever travelled outside of Canada to the world’s largest cities, there’s no doubt you will have seen how some large urban areas have really incredible transit systems – established networks that mean you truly never need to drive anywhere, and where transit is the easiest, fastest way to get around.  

But let’s talk about what makes good transit systems a priority, and how Canadian cities are increasingly investing in transit solutions.  The first factor that comes into play in transit design, is population density.  There’s no doubt that the more people who live or work in a defined area, the more transit can be effective.  Because Canadian cities don’t yet have the population of the really big international cities, they traditionally haven’t built the extensive networks that exist in places such as London or New York City. 

The problem is that this is a chicken and egg situation. Many people only want to live in an area where there’s convenient transit but transit planners – at least in the past – have often waited for an area’s population to increase before they invested in transit.   

Fortunately, many Canadian cities are realizing that they need to invest in transit before the population increases happen.  At the same time, they are increasingly encouraging the kinds of development that will support higher densities and that result in compact, pedestrian-friendly communities where people are more likely to leave their car at home and take transit.

Cities across Canada are building and expanding their transit networks, and using all sorts of different methods to encourage people to hop on board transit – from LRT and BRT, to ferries, subways and commuter trains, and even bike rentals. 

In Montreal, the transit provider STM has launched a new partnership called the Transportation Cocktail, which recognizes that there are all sorts of ways for people to get around apart from private autos. The Cocktail offers great deals combining tickets for transit and Bixi, the bike rental program.

Calgary’s C-Train is an enormous success, with the LRT in 2009 having counted one billion passengers since service was launched in 1981. It has the highest ridership of any LRT in North America. One of the success factors – apart from Calgary’s quickly growing population – is that rides in the downtown area are free!  Another great fact about the C-Train is that it gets all its electricity from wind power.  Now that’s a really small carbon footprint.

In Vancouver, the SkyTrain, which is a system of fully automated trains running mostly on elevated tracks, connects to a wonderfully diverse transit system that gives people lots of choices.  The entire system includes buses, trolley buses, a commuter rail system and the Sea Bus, a passenger-only ferry. 

The SkyTrain has been credited with helping to spur a significant amount of transit-oriented development to Vancouver – BC Transit says that more than $5 billion of private money has been invested within a 10–15 minute walking distance of the SkyTrain and SeaBus. 

Both Ottawa and Edmonton are currently extending their LRT lines, with the project in Ottawa involving tunneling through the busy downtown.

And what about the technology choice we’re using with Viva – BRT? 

Although it’s relatively new to Canada, cities all across the country are discovering the benefits of choosing BRT.  Some form of BRT has already been added to the transit services in many Canadian cities, with more extensive BRT services being planned or built across the country, from Victoria to Quebec City.

So in the future you’ll be able to visit cities across the country without having to get in a car, enjoying the sights by using our increasingly comprehensive transit services.  

If you’re interested in reading more about BRT in Canada, be sure to read this article from the Canadian Urban Transit Association.

Categories
General Press Rapidways

Transit ridership is way up: great news for everyone

Viva passengers getting on and off the bus at Warden Station in Markham

If you’re reading this blog, you have likely already seen the news release on our vivaNext.com website, describing the steady increase in transit ridership in York Region. But just to restate, on June 14 we announced that Viva ridership has increased 26% since this service was launched in September 2005. Overall ridership for both York Region Transit (YRT) and Viva Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) has increased by 10.5% from January to April 2011, compared to the same period in 2010.

This increase is great news for a number of reasons, whether or not you’re a transit rider.

First, the more people take transit, the more successful our services will be – more riders means more revenue, which in turn can be put back into our route planning and frequency, making services even better for riders.

Second, more people leaving their car keys at home and boarding YRT\Viva means less air pollution for everyone. We all know how important air quality is to our health – especially during hot summer months.

Third, every loaded bus is equal to 70 cars. So even if you’re personally not a transit rider, every time you drive alongside a bus loaded with passengers, that’s 70 cars that aren’t in front of you. The result is less congestion and easier driving for people who need to get around by car.

The fourth, and in some ways the most important reason, is that increased ridership suggests a culture shift – a really important one for the future of this region, and how we manage growth.

There’s no doubt that the culture in York Region, in the past, was quite car-based. That’s not at all unusual in an area that expanded quickly as part of the GTA suburban growth; where new subdivisions were designed for people who travelled by car, and where it was convenient to drive to most places.

But that kind of urban design can only happen when there’s lots of room – room for big wide roads, room for huge parking lots, and room for all the homes and driveways. Not to mention room for all of the cars. With the growth coming to York Region, that design just isn’t sustainable – we don’t have enough room to accommodate everyone without making some adjustments. So going forward, our new growth will be managed with urban, higher density developments, clustered along major roads. These new developments are being planned to make it very convenient for people to live, work and play without needing to get in a car. Our vision is that people will be able to travel between their job, shopping and recreation while using transit.

The fact that our transit ridership is going up shows that our long-term plan is working, and that people are finding it easy to get around by hopping on board YRT\Viva.

With our rapidways and the Spadina Subway extension already under construction, and efforts being made to get funding for the Yonge Subway extension, transit is only going to get better and better, which is great news for all of us.

Categories
General Rapidways

New fences make good neighbours

Example of paddock-style fencing

As we widen Davis Drive, one of our many priorities is to remember that for many people, Davis Drive isn’t just a busy street; it’s their home or workplace. Keeping that in mind, we’re doing whatever we can to be good neighbours while we build the Davis Drive rapidway.

That’s why last week we started installing paddock-style fencing around 19 properties on Davis Drive. We previously removed the buildings from these properties to make room for road widening, so they’re now vacant lots. Over the winter, they were surrounded by temporary construction fencing, but our intention was always that once demolition was done and warmer weather arrived, more attractive, permanent fencing would be installed.

Besides being attractive, the fencing is functional, keeping the properties secure and tidy. The new fences are set a bit back from the road to leave room for utility relocations and construction activity. As the project continues, we’ll use some properties to store construction materials, to stage crews and occasionally to park construction vehicles.

What will be done with the properties after the rapidway is complete? Well, that depends – each property is its own special case, with many factors for York Region and Metrolinx to consider and ensure the best possible use for the community.

In the meantime, your Community Liaison, Andrea Witty, is often out and about on Davis Drive, so if there’s something about the project that you’d like to talk about, please contact her.

Categories
General Rapidways

Why Bus Rapid Transit?

Warden Station: York Region's first built example of a rapid transit station

With GTA transit issues in the news so much lately, I’ve been asked why York Region chose to build Bus Rapid Transit instead of some other form of rapid transit. To help you understand how we decided to build vivaNext rapidways, here’s a bit of a primer on what BRT is, and why it’s great for York Region.

To begin with, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is defined as a public transit system that provides fast, frequent service, is able to move a lot of people, and runs on its own dedicated tracks or lanes. Other examples of rapid transit include subways and light rail transit (LRT). Some of the biggest cities in the world, including those with huge subway and LRT services, are increasingly turning to BRT as a key way to transport people quickly and reliably. And many major international cities, like New York City, are transforming their rapid transit systems by including BRT, at a fraction of what a rail system would cost. With limited resources and a lot of people to move, BRT is becoming seen as the smartest transit investment cities can make – like “a subway with a view.”

In general, the best BRT services have a number of things in common, including comfortable bus stations with amenities, well designed vehicles, a mechanism for rapid fare payment, use of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSs), dedicated roadway space, and frequent all day service. All aspects of a good BRT service are designed to work together to make travel faster than regular bus service. BRT vehicles need to be easy and convenient to enter, with close-to-level boarding, and rapid fare payment managed “off-board” (before passengers board). These elements help passengers get on and off more quickly, making the “dwell time” (the length of time the vehicle spends at a stop) as short as possible. And dedicated lanes through the most congested areas – as we will have here in York Region – are seen as the highest standard for BRT services.

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSs) are a whole story on their own, and one of the most interesting aspects of planning a BRT service. In a future blog, I’ll talk about these technologies and their huge impact on the performance of a BRT system.

Other rapid transit services such as subways or light rail may also have most of the same elements. But the main advantage offered by BRT is it can be expanded in segments as funding becomes available, and implemented quickly compared to other rapid transit services. Developing a rapid transit system in segments allows capital costs to be spread over time, which also leaves time to refine the design between each segment.

Being able to expand with funding, and the relatively fast timelines to implement, is especially important to York Region. More and more people are coming to York Region every year, and as much as this growth will bring many benefits, it also means our roads are getting more crowded – which is bad for everyone. We wanted to plan for a system that we could get up and running quickly and affordably.

The flexibility of BRT also works well for us, since development is taking place at different stages across York Region. Building BRT in segments means we can focus on the areas with the worst traffic congestion now, and then expand the system to service other areas as their population grows.

Everyone loves trains and subways, but those technologies don’t make sense in every situation. The decision to use a particular technology has to take into account the number of riders and local circumstances on the existing roadways. Subways cost a lot and are the best option where there are huge numbers of transit riders (such as south of Highway 7 on Yonge Street, or between Downsview Station and Highway 7 West in Vaughan). Most other transit routes in York Region don’t have the big city volume of riders needed to justify a subway. Light rail transit also calls for higher ridership numbers, but not as high as that needed by subways. Depending on future growth, in the future we may decide to convert our dedicated rapidways to LRT.

All in all, York Region’s BRT system will make travelling around York Region faster – at a price that we can afford. And with the first built example of a vivastation and rapidway section already in service, our new BRT system is going to be ready for passengers before you know it. We think that’s a plan to be proud of.

Categories
General Rapidways

Our partners: building on strength

Blog photo: Our partners - building on strength

Last week, I described how our partnership with the private sector is helping us to build our rapid transit system on schedule, and on budget. This week, here’s a primer on who our partners are, in particular our construction lead.

York Consortium 2002, our partner for the design components of the project, includes some of the worlds’ most experienced engineering, design and construction firms. Members of this joint venture include:

  • > AECOM Enterprises – based in the United States, one of the largest transportation firms in the world;
  • > IBI Group – Toronto-based, with offices around the world;
  • > Delcan Corporation – a Toronto-based international company that has developed rail transit in Los Angeles and Tel Aviv;
  • > Peter Kiewit Infrastructure Co. – a leading heavy civil contractor with offices across Canada; and,
  • > EllisDon Corporation – a Canadian-based international construction company that has worked on numerous major transit and transportation projects.

Under the terms of our agreement with York Consortium, they were offered the first right to bid on the construction project to build the Highway 7 East rapidway, with their bid competing in a bid process where we’ve gathered a cost estimate from an independent source.

Following this process, last year a partnership between Kiewit and Ellis-Don (Kiewit-EllisDon or KED) led the successful bid to become the construction contractor for the Highway 7 East rapidway.

Having KED is a tremendous benefit for this project, as our rapidways require a broad range of expertise in building roads, bridges, rapidways and transit stations. Kiewit has built some of the most challenging road and highway projects all across North America, including the Sea to Sky Highway in British Columbia. And EllisDon is one of the best known construction firms in Canada, with a wealth of knowledge and experience in our region.

It’s worth repeating that this is a huge project, with many challenges and months of work ahead. But we’re confident that our construction project on Highway 7 is in experienced and capable hands, and so far we’re off to a great start.

Categories
General Rapidways

Highway rapidways: shifting into the next phase

Illustration of shifted lanes: Traffic is shifted from one side to another along the roadway, to keep traffic lanes open

If you’ve been along Highway 7 East during the last few weeks, you’ll know that our work crews have been busily removing the raised concrete median that runs down the centre of the road. With that first phase of work almost complete and on schedule, here’s a primer on what we’ll be doing next, and how it will affect you.

As I described in last week’s note about construction staging, the reason we did that first phase of work was to free up some extra room so we could build the rapidway with a minimum impact on travel lanes. But that was just the warm-up act. Now that the median is gone, we’re about to shift into the heavy construction of the rapidway. To keep lanes open during peak hours we’ll be shifting traffic right and then eventually shifting traffic left – a little like a giant square dance without the fiddle music and funny clothes.

Swinging traffic right
May 11 and 12, starting at 7pm, we’re going to temporarily close all the centre lanes in both directions between Chalmers Road and Highway 404 (we’ll keep one lane open in each direction). Working over the two nights between 7pm and 7am, we’ll repaint the lanes as shown on the diagram above (we’ll reopen all lanes during the day). By Saturday, six travel lanes will be shifted to their temporary new positions. Then starting next week, our crews will begin working in the original curb lanes to widen the roadway and build the new boulevards. We expect this phase of work will take us until later this summer.

The diagram shows which lanes will be open for traffic, and where our crews will be working, starting at the west and east ends of this section of rapidway and working toward the middle at Pond Drive.

Swinging traffic left
Once the crews meet at Pond Drive, we’ll temporarily close the middle lanes again. This time we’ll repaint the lines to shift the lanes to the opposite side of the road. Then our crews will repeat the same steps, all along the second side.

We’re doing whatever we can to minimize the disruption for drivers and pedestrians. But you’ll definitely notice some changes while the lanes are in their temporary positions:

  • > There will still be left turn lanes and advance greens, but the lanes will be narrower and shorter.
  • > There will be no separate right turn lanes where construction is curbside.
  • > We’ll maintain access for businesses and intersections, although if temporary detours are needed we’ll be sure to point this out with clear signs.
  • > YRT\Viva stops will remain open, although some of them may be repositioned temporarily to allow for construction.
  • > If sidewalks have to be closed off, we’ll provide temporary sidewalks.

Although the temporary lanes will be clearly marked, they’ll be curved and slightly narrower than usual.

So please, drive carefully, watch for signs alerting you to construction zones and lane shifts, and be excited that our rapid transit future here in York Region is well and truly underway!

Categories
General

Highway 7 East Rapidway Week One Update

A backhoe scoops up pieces of the Highway 7 median near Leslie Street
A backhoe scoops up pieces of the Highway 7 median near Leslie Street

After all the planning and prepping, rapidway construction is well underway for our Highway 7 East rapidway. And so far so good – work is going according to schedule, the weather’s cooperating, and we hope to have this first stage of work done by late May.

Here’s an update on what’s happening, and what to expect over the next while.

Before we can get going on the heavy construction, we need to create some room to work. The way we do that is to remove and pave over the centre median all the way from Chalmers in the west end, to Highway 404 in the east. Using those extra feet of roadway, we will then repaint the lanes, shifting them away from the current edge of the road to give our crews room to work safely, while keeping all travel lanes open.

At that point, heavy construction will start to actually widen the future roadway. Starting at both the west and east ends (Chalmers and the 404) and working toward the middle at Pond Drive, work crews will get going on widening the road on one side, and putting in wide new boulevards. Once they have that first side done, they’ll switch sides.

Most of the widening and boulevard work west of 404 should be done by the end of this year. Once the work on the sides is finished, we’ll have to stop construction for the winter. In the spring of 2012 we’ll get going again, this time working down the middle to build the rapidway and stations.

Similar staging will be used for the eastern section, from the 404 to Town Centre then south to Enterprise, with most of the work to be done there in 2012 and 2013. The whole segment along Highway 7 East will be up and running in 2014.

The median removals require temporary lane closures during off-peak hours, and we know that is creating a bit of congestion. Fortunately, once this first short stage of work is over, our construction contractor, Kiewit-EllisDon (one of the largest construction companies in North America) will be able to minimize disruption as much as possible. They’ve planned the construction so that most of the time, all lanes will be kept open. If lanes are required to be closed, it generally won’t be during rush hour. Even though it’s a huge project, we’re counting on them to get it completed on schedule, and cause as little disruption as possible.

One of our priorities is to make sure it’s easy for drivers to drive through the construction zone, and ensure constant access to businesses and addresses along Highway 7. We’ll be installing construction signs, including electronic message signs, which will warn drivers if the road is congested up ahead, so you’ll know if you need to take an alternate route.

We will be keeping you updated on all the developments as they unfold, but there’s no doubt this is a major infrastructure project, and it’s going to take about three years to complete from one end to the other. So please, drive carefully, watch for signs showing where work is happening, and check your inbox for e-updates on what’s happening out there. If you haven’t signed up yet, now’s the time to register at vivaNext.com.