Vancouver Evergreen Line

[officedweller]

Pics by Yellow Fever:

Posted April 24th - don't these have been posted before:

Evergreen Line, Port Moody section.

IMG_9763 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

IMG_9759 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

IMG_9753 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

IMG_9762 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

IMG_9765 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

IMG_9767 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

IMG_9768 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

IMG_9781 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

IMG_9779 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

IMG_9780 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

 

[officedweller]

and more posted May 13th:

Coquitlam Douglas College section updates..

IMG_9815 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

IMG_9814 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

IMG_0428 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

IMG_0425 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

IMG_0423 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

IMG_0418 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

IMG_0417 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

IMG_0405 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

IMG_0404 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

IMG_0399 by Yellow Fever @ SkyscraperCity, on Flickr

 

[BurlOak]

It looks like this is coming along well. They might just finish in less than 4 years. In Toronto, St. Clair LRT (or Streetcar, depending on how one views it), took 5 years to complete. It really does seem like a bad idea to build on-street rail transit. Elevated is so much more superior.

 

[nfitz]

It really does seem like a bad idea to build on-street rail transit. Elevated is so much more superior.

Are you trolling? The streetcar tracks on St. Clair cost about $60 million - less than $10 million/km. The separate project for burying they hyrdo lines almost cost more than that! The Evergreen line is only about 3 km longer than St. Clair and is costing about $1.4 billion.

At the same time, the 2021 projected Evergreen daily ridership is only 70,000 a day. Compare to the current daily ridership of over 38,000 on St. Clair.

Given how cheap and cost-effective St. Clair is, and how successful the route has been, I'm amazed that one could see what Vancouver has done as being superior. And that's before considering the streetscape - Old Toronto isn't suburban Vancouver.

 

[junctionist]

The Evergreen line seems like a good value for rapid transit (before taking ridership into consideration). $1.4 billion is getting metro Vancouver 10.9 km of rapid transit. The Spadina subway extension is at least $2.6 billion for 6.2 km of subway.

 

[nfitz]

The Evergreen line seems like a good value for rapid transit (before taking ridership into consideration). $1.4 billion is getting metro Vancouver 10.9 km of rapid transit. The Spadina subway extension is at least $2.6 billion for 6.2 km of subway.

Why wouldn't one take ridership into consideration? Evergreen ridership is quite low for such an expenditure.

I'm not sure why you are saying the Spadina extension is only 6 km. It's closer to 9 km than 6 km. The 2031 Spadina extension ridership is also predicted to be 70,000. And there's been a lot of criticism that this extension is not necessary, particularly the last 3 km or so, which won't see anywhere near 70,000.

 

[junctionist]

The 6 km figure is the length within Toronto's borders. It's about 9 km in total. I appreciate the correction. But I still think that the Evergreen line is good value for the rapid transit they're getting.

It's half the cost of the Spadina subway extension and 2 km longer. Why not compare it to on-street LRT? The Finch West line is 11 km too. The projected cost is $1.2 billion. The projected ridership? 40,000 per day. The Evergreen line looks quite good.

 

[officedweller]

It looks like this is coming along well. They might just finish in less than 4 years. In Toronto, St. Clair LRT (or Streetcar, depending on how one views it), took 5 years to complete. It really does seem like a bad idea to build on-street rail transit. Elevated is so much more superior.

Construction started in February 2013, though there was some property acquisition and utility relocation, etc. before that.
The Fixed-Price P3 Contract requires Substantial Completion of the Project (i.e. all system testing, running of trains, etc.) by July 29, 2016. TransLink is to open the line to the public within 1 month after Substantial Completion.

HOWEVER, delays in tunnelling (problems with some sinkholes developing due to the nature of the soil) have delayed the contractor and a later opening date has been announced (see press release below).

Under the Fixed-Price P3 Contract, the Private Consortium accepted the tunnelling risk, so it will bear the costs of the delays.
Under the Fixed-Price P3 Contract, the Private Consortium will also bear penalties for each day of delay past July 29, 2016.

WRT the Evergreen Line, it proceeded as a Design Build partially Finance contract.

Here's the Partnerships BC analysis of the contract (click "Project Report"):

http://www.partnershipsbc.ca/projec...ruction/evergreen-line-rapid-transit-project/

A redacted copy of the DBF Contract and schedules is at that link under "Procurement Documents".

Here are the excerpts from that report which states that the private contractor accepted tunnelling risk
and will pay a financial penalty for each day that substantial completion is delayed past July 29, 2016.

The recent unexpected problems with soil conditions while tunnelling - which will delay the project
- are the responsibility of the private contractor consortium.

Note that the private contractor is building a single bore tunnel - which is an "innovation" versus
the Province's reference plan which was for a twin-bore project. This was said to speed up the schedule.
So in this case, had the Province proceeded with its own plan, the soil condition delays may have been encountered twice,
with a twin bore, rather than once with a single bore.

The current projected opening date is in Fall 2016
(Construction started in February 2013, with property acquisition and utility relocation undertaken by the Province before that.)
The contract requires TransLink to open within 1 month after substantial completion
- so backtracking 1 month to substantial completion, the contractor's penalties are for at least a month.

Here's the Press Release about the delayed opening and that the Contractor is responsible for the cost of the delay:

http://www.evergreenline.gov.bc.ca/documents/NewsReleases/2015TRAN0016-000182.pdf


http://www.partnershipsbc.ca/files-4/documents/PBCEvergreen.pdf


http://www.partnershipsbc.ca/files-4/documents/PBCEvergreen.pdf

 

[nfitz]

It's half the cost of the Spadina subway extension and 2 km longer. Why not compare it to on-street LRT? The Finch West line is 11 km too. The projected cost is $1.2 billion. The projected ridership? 40,000 per day. The Evergreen line looks quite good.

40,000 a day? That doesn't sound right. The Finch West bus alone is 44,000 a day.

What's your reference for that?

 

[junctionist]

40,000 a day? That doesn't sound right. The Finch West bus alone is 44,000 a day.

What's your reference for that?

This article in the Toronto Star. Note the second last paragraph. After looking into it some more, other articles reported 2,250 people per hour. That works out to 54,000 per day.

Regardless of these discrepancies, the Evergreen line is reliable rapid transit at an easily affordable price.

 

[officedweller]

From SSP:

They were single-tracking through Lougheed over the weekend to do some guideway integration work with the existing inbound track. I believe they have 2 more weekends of work scheduled.

Video from this morning at Lougheed showing the inbound curve.

Some updates from me.

Port Moody Station

Inlet Centre

Continued from preceding post.

Coquitlam Central

Lincoln

Douglas College-Lafarge Lake

This report suggests that the diameter of the TBM and the associated large "face" that needs to be supported when the maintenance occurs.

Remember, the diameter of the TBM is a double bore width, rather than a single bore width.

Maintenance work on the cutter head is now beginning after crews spent the last few weeks stabilizing the soil around it. That work included building grout walls around the tunnel-boring machine, named “Alice,” to keep soil from falling into the cutter-head.

Evergreen CEO Amanda Farrell admits the shifting ground conditions have taken them a bit by surprise.

“They certainly weren’t planning on building the grout walls. They didn’t anticipate they would need to do that. So to that extent, yes, that is a challenge that wasn’t expected. There was extensive geo-technical work done in advance of the project over quite a few years. So the nature of the soil, the sand and the gravel was known, but the challenge of maintaining the large face turned out to be more significant than was anticipated. So yes, it has taken longer to do because of that.”

http://www.news1130.com/2015/05/27/...-along-the-evergreen-line-construction-route/

 

[Markster]

Oh they're still tunnelling?!

 

[officedweller]

Yup!
That's the cause of the delay in opening.
The private contractor will be responsible for the costs of the delay under the fixed price contract.

 

[officedweller]

From SSP:

Pics of the Burquitlam area from the Evergreen Line Facebook page

Looks pretty...almost ready. If only they would open it for passengers sooner than later...

 

[officedweller]

From SSP:

Happened to be in the Burquitlam area today. Uptown2 towers under construction.