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Lynx Blue Line (South Corridor)

monsoon

By monsoon
in Charlotte

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Mobuchu Burg

Mobuchu

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Thanks so much for the pics. I drove all over up there today but couldn't find the darn thing. Think I was too late. I did however stop at the CATS offices and am trying to set up an appointment to take pics of the interior and all. Hopefully I get that call back, we'll see.

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AuLukey Town

AuLukey

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It's amazing to think of those things running around Charlotte. I want them on campus NOW. You can hardly notice the wheels in those pictures, almost gives it the appearance it is floating over the tracks. I was going to ask about noise levels, but I can't imagine you could get an indication on that right now since it was being pulled.

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Mobuchu Burg

Mobuchu

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Well I missed the LRT vehicle but I did drive down to the 485 park and ride to see how things were progressing. The parking deck is now starting to go vertical. Its impressive how big this site is. Theres also a pic of work being done to bore under the existing rail tracks to the parking deck and of the bridge at Arrowood.

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dubone Megalopolis

dubone

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Thank you so much for the pics, Mo and Mu. I don't get to go down that way as much as I used to, and with gas prices, I don't get to take my obsessive tours of all the moving dirt in the city.

One question I have after seeing Mo's pic (although I don't hope to take this off track from the excitement of seeing pics of the train for the FIRST TIME!!!). In last weekend's CBJ, it had a lot of information on construction techniques. It talked about how many sites have gone with pre-fabbed concrete because of the significant cost savings. The only catch is that you have to have planned far enough ahead in order to have about a 6 month lag time for the parts to be constructed. This works especially well for parking decks. So.... CATS had YEARS of planning for this parking deck, yet they are using pour in place, which takes longer to build, is subject to weather delays and weather effects on concrete, and most importantly is more expensive. Does anyone know of valid reasons to use this technique for a project planned so far in advance, or were CATS engineers simply not seeking enough in the way of cost savings?

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AuLukey Town

AuLukey

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Does anyone know of valid reasons to use this technique for a project planned so far in advance, or were CATS engineers simply not seeking enough in the way of cost savings?

Welcome to North Carolinian government planning in general. Where little to nothing makes sense.

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uptownliving Town

uptownliving

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Thanks so much for the pics. I drove all over up there today but couldn't find the darn thing. Think I was too late. I did however stop at the CATS offices and am trying to set up an appointment to take pics of the interior and all. Hopefully I get that call back, we'll see.

I did too. Got out there around 1pm and no train :(

Let us know if you hear anything. I'll work the lines on my contacts at CATS as well.

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monsoon Gigalopolis

monsoon

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Does anyone know of valid reasons to use this technique for a project planned so far in advance, or were CATS engineers simply not seeking enough in the way of cost savings?

It's been my observation that CATS is trying to contain costs as much as they can and meet the schedules imposed on them. I would give a guess the reason they went this route is this.

They have a schedule deadline imposed on them by the Federal government. They have a lot of very large and heavy concrete parts that if fabbed elsewhere would have to be transported down very busy streets and would be quite disruptive to traffic and would require coordination amongst many agencies to pull off. (things like moving power lines, closing streets, arranging cranes, etc) Some of the long parts simply might not have been navigatable in the already urban SB area. They experienced these difficulties with transporting the actual train from California to NC via truck and have decided the rest of them will come either by train or/or ship.

I suspect that pre-fabbing would have been impossible to pull off and maintain a resonable schedule and given the above, and probably more expensive in the long run.

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Mobuchu Burg

Mobuchu

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^^^ I was about to say the site is right off of 485 so it cant be that hard, but then realized that the construction site is accessed from the other side off of Westinghouse. Its a small residential street with speed bumps, so you may be right. How big does the prefab concrete pieces get?

Mugen, got any more pics, I cant get enough of seeing that train........

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dubone Megalopolis

dubone

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Ok, I'm satisfied :).

Again, thank you guys for the pictures. It is somewhat amazing to me that the renderings of the trains turned out to look pretty close to the reality. I was concerned that they would look more like the Houston LRT, which while nice, wasn't as cool imv as these. But gladly, they look great.

I recently was in (omenous music plays) Pineville for an errand that could only be done in Pineville. It was pretty cool to see the crane for the parking deck from on 485. I wonder if CATS could add a big towered sign like McD's uses to get people off the freeway and onto those trains.

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origin.clt Whistle-Stop

origin.clt

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^^^ I was about to say the site is right off of 485 so it cant be that hard, but then realized that the construction site is accessed from the other side off of Westinghouse. Its a small residential street with speed bumps, so you may be right. How big does the prefab concrete pieces get?

Mugen, got any more pics, I cant get enough of seeing that train........

I posted all that I took. I can assure you though, as I can see the light rail line from my desk at work, I will have many more pictures once the train starts running powered this week.

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Mobuchu Burg

Mobuchu

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Oh, i'll be driving by this section about 5 times a day looking for the train. All the condo's and infill going on around uptown are great, but this is the one project that lights up my eyes and gets me excited. Having fixed rail mass transit will just bring everything together and give us a true "urban corridor". I cant wait!!

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brianc Unincorporated Area

brianc

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Hello everybody :D Do they plan to put up signs at the exits on 77 and 485 to tell people about the light rail stations, like example(tyvola rd exit tyvola station) or something like that. I know most cities like Dallas, and others have those information signs up.

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  • 2 weeks later...
MZT Burg

MZT

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The train was out this AM. It was barely moving - but seemed to be under it's own power. Hopefully this will become a common sight soon and no longer worth reporting!

9/1 - edit. I guess it was still being towed yesterday and I wasn't looking close enough, b/c it was being towed this morning...

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Mobuchu Burg

Mobuchu

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WBTV news was out taking video, and they did an interview with one of the CATS reps. He said they will be doing low speed preliminary testing for now, and will start full speed testing in a couple weeks. They were testing the brakes today.

Watch WBTV tonight, they got to go on the train for its last run (i was denied, lol), so maybe we will be able to see the interior.

They said they were going to run the train from 10 to 12, and they started early and finished late (still going as i type). Not sure if this will be the same everyday. Maybe if I come out here everyday and ask for a ride they will eventually let me on...

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