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METRORail Green Line


Guest danax

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East and Southeast will open for service in September or October probably.

 

They were testing the trains on the Southeast (Purple) line yesterday -- they had all sorts of styrofoam pieces attached to the trains -- it looked like they were checking clearance between signs, poles, etc....they had police all over the place blocking roads and driveways since people aren't looking for or expecting the trains yet.

 

They had also changed Texas Avenue in front of BBVA Stadium to 2-way traffic starting tomorrow - they added 1 westbound lane between Chartres and Bastrop

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The HRT guys are really getting a bit sloppy downtown.  They have sidewalks completely blocked off, and their trucks are often angle parked to where you have to go into traffic to get around them.  This really becomes an issue in the 800 block of Rusk, because Skanska's got the other side of the street completely blocked for the Houston Club demo.  I pointed to a woman who was forced to push a stroller in a traffic lane on Rusk to a guy who claimed he was a "boss," but he just shrugged.

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Looks like they still need some programming to do on the street lights lol.  A green light with a train crossing isn't good. 

 

This is a clearance test. There's people in the intersection managing the traffic. No trains are actually operating on that line yet.

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TJI:


METRO Moving Forward with Hughes Street Overpass

METRO's is taking the Green Line over Hughes Street to connect the line to the Magnolia Transit Center.

After several meetings with East End residents, civic leaders, elected officials and extensive discussions with environmental professionals on the subject of the Huges Street overpass/underpass, the METRO Board of Directors voted today in favor of an overpass. 

"I think it’s important that we never lose sight of our fiduciary duty, and we represent everyone and everything within the service area," said METRO Board Chairman Gilbert Garcia. "We’ve got to complete the line. That is the best thing we can do for this community - complete the line and get out of the way.” 

Eight board members voted in favor with Christof Spieler absent.  Spieler did however send an email in support of an overpass.

The METRO Board will move forward with the option that will take light rail and vehicular traffic, plus sidewalks over Hughes Street. The option also provides a lane for vehicular traffic and pedestrian sidewalks at street level.  Preliminary costs are estimated between $35-$43 million. The overpass is projected to take31 months to complete.

The underpass option would have cost $52-$68 million and take approximately 
42 months to complete. That does not include costs of remediation of environmental clean up outside of the project specific area.

The Board approved motion states:

I MOVE THAT METRO RESCIND ITS PREVIOUS BOARD ACTION FOR AN UNDERPASS, AND CONSTRUCT A LIGHT RAIL OVERPASS WITH A LIMITED NOTICE TO PROCEED WITH THIS DESIGN. METRO WILL WORK WITH THE CITY OF HOUSTON TO SECURE FUNDING AND AGREEMENTS BY JUNE 30TH, TO ALSO HAVE TRAFFIC LANES OVER AND PEDESTRIAN WALKWAYS AND TRAFFIC LANES AND PEDESTRIAN WALKWAYS AT GRADE AND PEDESTRIAN CROSSINGS. IF AN AGREEMENT IS NOT ENTERED INTO BY JUNE 30TH, METRO WILL DESIGN AND CONSTRUCT AN OVERPASS WITH LIGHT RAIL ONLY.

The light rail only option would cost $27-$37 million and take approximately 28 months to complete. Next steps include working with the city of Houston to try to expedite the construction process. "We want to work to move this forward as fast as possible," said Garcia.

ee_crop.jpg

The Green Line's tracks have been undergoing testing. The majority of the line - from downtown to Altic - is expected to open this fall.

 
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no way it takes 31 months to design/build that bridge....bridge engineer here....are they going to run a separate train on the east portion?

 

No plans for separate trains running on the east portion according to the Green Line office representative I spoke to. The rails and stations will sit there unused until the bridge is completed.

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But what kind of overpass?

I heard they were going for the rail only option, then last night on the news, they approved a rail and traffic one.

Board recommended overpass design with rail and one lane of vehicular traffic. Other vehicular lane will be at grade. METRO will negotiate with city council to aide with financials for this design. If by summer nothing has come to fruition, then METRO will proceed with overpass design with only rail (2 vehicular lanes at grade).

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well, you just can't have workers standing by, so I'd imagine they'd have to design and engineer it once they decide what design they want to use.

then of course, you need to order pieces from various vendors, blah, blah, blah.

Most people don't have the slightest clue on what it takes to construct something.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Jeez ... that is ridiculous.  Some colleagues at work were recently lamenting how, in our company, it seems that the right and left hands don't know what each other are doing.  But ... the situation within and between Metro, CoH and the others seems to be much more dire!  

 

And I thought the phenomenon of sidewalks built with utility poles in the middle was bad.  This is much worse.

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I certainly hope that it's temporary - but I doubt that was the intention.  This looks like different sheets were used for traffic control signals and catenary support placement, and nobody bothered to overlay them.  Both posts are the type and finish being used for the permanent installation, and the catenary post already has some of the train wiring strung.  I suspect this is something that's going to need to generate a change order.  

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Isn't this the eastbound line in downtown that runs along Rusk on one side of the street ? I'm thinking the same in the previous post they may add signals to the catenary poles but these poles may be cantilevered where the arms stretches over one or two lines towards the middle of the street which is possible. 

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