Category: Rapidways

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Construction Rapidways vivaNext.com

Davis Drive rapidway – construction ramps up

Signs of spring are in the air, for us at vivaNext spring symbolizes a time of year when construction work ramps up. Last year, we completed a number of important construction projects on the way to building the Davis Drive rapidway. This year, we kick off a very busy construction season with significant work starting in April.

Traffic lanes, sidewalks and bus stops will be shifting along Davis Drive, this is required to relocate, install and replace segments of infrastructure for hydro, gas, storm drain, water main, sewer line, phone and cable. These changes are part of the next phase of construction, providing workers sufficient room to start building the rapidway, station platforms and canopies. More details on the lane closures on Davis Drive are available at vivanext.com.

Crews will also be working on culverts on the south side of Eastern Creek (near Southlake Regional Health Centre) and Western Creek this year. The north side of Keith Bridge is scheduled to be complete in 2014.

We know construction can be daunting and we thank you for your patience and understanding. Please drive with care and give yourself extra time to get to your destination safely.

Updates about all of this work will be made available as they happen. If you have questions or concerns please contact your Community Liaison and sign up for construction updates to get the the latest construction information.

The vivaNext plan will help Newmarket continue to shape its growing community making it an even better place to work, shop and play.

Categories
Construction Rapidways

Putting a new face on the old Keith Bridge

If you’ve been driving along Davis Drive recently, you’ve noticed the lane shift onto the new south side of the Keith Bridge, just east of the Tannery and the Seniors’ Meeting Place. In fact, if you’re on Davis Drive regularly you’ve seen the lane shifts for a few months.

Now that we’ve had time to do our preparatory work, we’re ready to start the next phase of bridge work. This week, the north side of Keith Bridge is being demolished so that we can rebuild and join it to the south side, completing the bridge. The demolition of the bridge will happen in two stages over the course of about one week – first the east half and then the west. Then the real work begins – building the bridge from the riverbed up to the road.

With all this work to do you may be wondering why we’d choose to start in the winter, instead of the spring or the summer. The bridge, named after William Keith, a Newmarket Reeve, an MPP and a Senior Magistrate in the early 1900s, spans the Holland River. Fisheries and Oceans Canada sets out specific timing for heavy construction [such as demolition] in and around water so that the spawning migrations of fish aren’t disturbed. We looked very closely at the factors and the timing involved before deciding that now is the best time to get the demolition done while not disrupting the fish.

Finishing the new Keith Bridge, complete with historic architectural features, in 2014 is a major part of the Davis Drive transformation. The new bridge will reflect Newmarket’s rich heritage and growing community, making it an even better place to live, work, shop and play.

 

Categories
Fun & Games General Live-work-play Rapidways Uncategorized Urban Planning

VivaNext has Olympic spirit!

vivaNext Olympics

The summer Olympics bring together the best and brightest of athletes around the world in a variety of summer sports, ready to compete. As we cheer on Team Canada in the vivaNext office, we notice some similarities between the dedication that each athlete has to his/her sport and the dedication that we have to our new vivaNext rapid transit system.

Athletes, whether participating in summer or winter Olympics, are forced to endure the elements when it comes to practice. Whether braving through cold to ski or melting in the heat practicing beach volleyball, these athletes continue to give it their all. Likewise, vivaNext has to work with the elements as we go through construction. In the summer months, it’s important that our construction workers stay cool under the hot sun. On days when it rains, construction can be at a stand-still, forcing us to work even harder the next day.

Just like any athlete, we have a team of coaches and supporting staff that are making the vivaNext vision a reality. From the engineering to communications teams to onsite supervisors, our success is a group effort. Although only the athlete may receive a medal, it is often a team effort, with coaches included, to help them reach the podium. Similarly, it is a team effort to ensure that the vivaNext transformation is a success.

And of course, there is something to be said for the speed at which athletes that cycle, row, or run track travel. They are constantly looking to move faster and improve their travel times. Our rapidways will help reduce congestion and provide a reliable rapid transit network along our corridors as well. We’ll reduce travel time by up to 40%, and make reaching your destination easier and more efficient.

At the vivaNext office, we are supporting Canadian athletes through our own office Olympics. Departments are virtually going head-to-head to earn medals for different sports. How are you supporting Team Canada? Is there an athlete that you’re rooting for? Let us know by commenting below!

If you’re interested in learning more about the vivaNext projects, visit us at www.vivanext.com. You can also sign up to receive e-mail construction updates here.

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Community Events Rapidways

Davis Drive Open House Results

Click here to see our open house information on our websiteDid you attend our Davis Drive open house on May 15? The event saw a great turnout, with residents and vivaNext representatives discussing what’s coming next for rapidway construction along Davis Drive.

If you weren’t able to attend the open house, all of the materials that were shared are available on our Past Meetings page, so you can read up on the latest information that you may have missed. You can also sign up for project updates.

Thank you to everybody that came out to learn more about vivaNext construction. It was great to speak with residents about the future of the Davis Drive rapidway. Be sure to check back on the vivaNext website for information about any upcoming open house events. We hope to see you there!

Categories
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.

Categories
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.

Categories
Rapidways Uncategorized Urban Planning

A turn for the better: navigating the new traffic signals

Intersection traffic patterns on Highway 7If you’re like me, traffic signals are one of those things that you automatically respond to without spending a lot of time thinking about them – if a light’s green it means you can go, and if it’s red you can’t. But when something is new, sometimes it helps to understand the reasons behind it. We’ve introduced new traffic signals on Highway 7 at the Leslie and West and East Beaver Creek intersections in December 2011, and want everyone to understand why they’re there and how they work.

As part of the vivaNext plan, rapidway lanes are being built in the middle of the road, making it much wider than it was in the past. The widening for this section of Highway 7 is now complete, so we’ve installed the new traffic signals at three of the intersections.

The new traffic signals include a protected left-turn arrow, which only allows left turns from Highway 7 when the left-turn arrow is green. During the left-turn arrow signal, there is no straight-through traffic in either direction and no pedestrian crossings allowed.

The reason for installing the protected left turn arrow is because of the increased width in the road. With the rapidway running down the middle of the intersection, the left turn lanes aren’t opposite each other.  The protected left-turn arrow allows left-turning traffic to turn without the hazard of oncoming traffic.

When the protected left-turn arrow is lit, drivers in the left-turn lane can also make a u-turn in the intersection. In sections of road with rapidway lanes in the centre, drivers will access addresses or streets on the opposite side of the road by making a u-turn at an intersection. Intersections with the new traffic signals have a special “U-Turn Permitted” sign under the “Left Turn Signal” sign.

During construction, video detectors will sense traffic in the dedicated left-turn lanes and extend the duration of the left-turn arrow. Once construction is complete, a magnetic sensor known as a “loop” will be installed in the pavement to detect traffic and extend the left-turn arrow duration.
At times, it might take a bit longer to drive through an intersection that has the protected left-turn arrow, but overall, our corridors are changing for the better. As our population grows, Highway 7 will become increasingly urbanized (see our blog about how Highway 7 is changing), and Yonge Street and Davis Drive will follow, each with their own local character. Instead of feeling like highways designed for cars, each street will feel like an urban area, with interesting destinations. The new traffic signals will be there to ensure drivers and pedestrians can navigate safely to their destination.

Diagrams of intersection traffic patterns:
Six-lane road, like Highway 7
Four-lane road, like Davis Drive

Diagrams of u-turn traffic patterns:
Six-lane road, like Highway 7
Four-lane road, like Davis Drive

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.

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.