Raise the Hammer

This be true. As far as I know, the choice of sites are not quite appealing and a decision needs to be made soon, to prevent delaying the LRT.

That is partially why I thought the Burlington route could actually work better to bring LRVs to the facility -- it would potentially eliminate the need to relocate the pylons or bury the transmission line, assuming an alternate LRT access routing from the west is used instead of Birch.

That said, burying the transmission line has other economic/revitalization impacts, which might be a good side project if we found a budget to do so. Are the pylons anywhere near their EOL and need to be rebuilt at some point in ten or twenty years anyway? (I am genuinely curious, as it looked quite rusting last Insaw the pylons -- although it could just need a simple galvanic coating treatment -- zinc anti-rust paint)... If they are in a need of eventual rebuild coinciding not too long after LRT, burying a bit early could be a good side beautification project to revitalize the area.

The CN railway corridor has plenty of room to bring in heavy equipment (entering the railway corridor from other level crossings that is not too much trouble to access from the Tesla Viaduct). Just pay CN enough and they are happy to oblige with a (one-time or two-time) oversize wide heavy freight load that can be reassembled onsite. So I think it is doable. And if the waterfront LRT extension automatically now makes Burlington spur much easier, this could elevate this site selection.

That is, if they were already secretly working on a Burlington spur option, prior to an announcement.

(There are many differing opinions on the MSF even among fellow LRT advocates)

The question is....Are there more appealing MSF locations that may have room for a larger LRT expansion, more cost effectively -- especially if they use a Burlington/Barton spur instead?

Comment edited by mdrejhon on 2016-02-19 12:56:48