This Member Says Thank You:

Lookinin

The Delta Intersection
C-04-30 / 5334
Pre-Construction Notice
Notice of Road Construction
Project Manager: John Stephenson

Documents:
Staff Report for Land Expropriation

Cambridge Times Apr 14, 2011 Article (with rendering): http://www.cambridgetimes.ca/news/local/article/993044

Taxpayers save $24M
Cambridge mayor hails ‘great news' for region's taxpayers and drivers as CP Rail is ordered to pay lion's share of bridge construction that will finally end constant traffic tieups on Hespeler Road
August 27, 2009 | Jeff Outhit | THE RECORD | Link

CAMBRIDGE — Politicians are celebrating a federal ruling that compels CP Rail to pay for most of an overpass to solve a traffic headache on Hespeler Road.

CP Rail may now have to put up to $29 million into separating the road from the tracks, while regional taxpayers will only be on the hook for as little as $3.5 million. Effectively, the ruling saves taxpayers up to $24 million in estimated costs.

“That's great news for all taxpayers in the region,” Cambridge Mayor Doug Craig said. “It's removed all the final obstacles to the bridge going ahead.”

“We're disappointed with the ruling,” said Michel Spenard, spokesperson for CP Rail. But the railway is not appealing the cost order by the Canadian Transportation Agency. “We'll abide,” he said.

The street level crossing near Water and Dundas streets is a notorious headache. Traffic frequently backs up while trains shunt back and forth, an average of 26 times a day, mostly to serve the Cambridge Toyota factory.

Construction on the long-anticipated and much-delayed overpass may launch in the fall of next year, if CP Rail moves quickly to rejoin project planning.

Construction will take two years.

CP Rail withdrew from planning pending the cost ruling. Spenard could not say when the railway will rejoin the project.

The railway told the transportation agency the proposed overpass is premature and overdesigned. The firm asked that construction be put off, or that its share of basic costs be limited to 15 per cent, the least allowed.

The federal agency sided with Waterloo regional council, ordering the overpass to go ahead as designed and directing the railway to shoulder 85 per cent of basic costs, the most allowed. The railway must also shoulder all costs for tentative special overpass features, such as extra tracks. In their ruling, two agency members pointed out that CP Rail violates federal rules whenever it blocks Hespeler Road for longer than five minutes, which happens in one out of four crossings.

“It was nice to get a clear-cut decision,” Regional Chair Ken Seiling said. He said dealing with the railway “has not been easy in the past.”

CP Rail had at one point proposed relocating most trains outside the region, to reduce bothersome crossings.

The firm later put this proposal on hold when the economy tanked.

KevinL · 08-18-2012 05:45 PM

Awesome time lapse of the transition weekend, posted by the Region:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vdh738LgWw4

(note to mods: the YouTube tag doesn't seem to work...)

UrbanWaterloo · 08-30-2012 09:03 PM

August 26, 2012

South

South-East

North-West

This Member Says Thank You: Lookinin

This Member Says Thank You:

Lookinin