- Thread starter JasonParis
- Start date
jordanmkasla2009
Active Member
It will be TBM bored.
emphurent
Active Member
Gonna be honest, this tangent has gone on for far too long, it's made this thread one I'd rather ignore due to it lacking any substance. It's okay for a thread to go quiet if there are no updates.
One user who has actionable knowledge about Metrolinx told you the policy that Metrolinx has written out and you got mad at him for it, it was only thing of substance I read here all week too. If you disagree with Metrolinx, take it up with them, picking at this thread here won't make you any happier cause nobody here has the power to do anything, it's just making the forum less enjoyable.
Anyways since those tags (throw ups) you posted are pretty ugly, here's some talent I saw recently to cleanse the thread LOL.
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T3G
Senior Member
Meh, these sound barriers are an unholy abomination by the very virtue of their existence, profusely ugly and intrusive. Complaining about them being covered in graffiti is like complaining that a squatter took a dump in a burned out car.
Kyle Campbell
Senior Member
This kind of makes me think they should use it as an art opportunity. Art pieces tend not to get tagged as much as blank (or completely transparent) walls
crs1026
Superstar
They do. i chat with 'em daily. Same guys who maintain signs, clear brush from rights of way, mend fencing, etc. Graffitti is in their job descriptions.
- Paul
smallspy
Senior Member
If the graffiti is on the ROW, they absolutely do. In fact, they are the only ones with the authority to do so, as they are the only ones trained to work in that environment.
If it is off of the ROW, they start to have options. The track maintainers are always out and about, and so they may remove the more hateful ones. Otherwise, there are a couple of property services companies that Metrolinx has awarded contracts to that will handle it on the publicly-accessible areas, but usually on a schedule rather than ad-hoc.
Dan
crs1026
Superstar
I truly wish this were so, but it only is true to a degree. A case study is the south side of the Weston/Galt Subs around Queen. There was a city-sponsored event where a number of urban artists created murals along a large retaining wall. It was a very successful project that created some interesting art pieces..... but has gradually been overwritten by taggers of lower stature. Every time I go by, it gets a bit more dishevelled and a bit more disappointing.
Ivy is your friend.
- Paul
416InTrouble
Active Member
This kind of makes me think they should use it as an art opportunity. Art pieces tend not to get tagged as much as blank (or completely transparent) walls
agree and this was an option along with staggered walls for conifers to grow every 3-5ft along with other options like ivy were what the community advocated / begged for but were ignored by Mx. Instead, and in Doug Fords Ontario we will now have miles of graffiti covered waste instead of creatively using our brains on options that would not only reduce graffiti, help clean the air (in the case of staggered conifers along the walls) while also cutting expenses that are now required for generations of graffiti removal and will drive operating costs UP
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416InTrouble
Active Member
17_Bean_17
New Member
Most of these examples are excellent landscaping and grading but are not reflective of the nature of the joint LSE+OL corridor nor its immediate surroundings. You'll note that none of them show any buildings within their immediate proximity, and none are located in a dense, urban environment such as the one the corridor at hand runs through. For example, the first image is taken from the California HSR Central Valley design, a project which runs through urban areas of a less dense and completely different character than Riverside & Leslieville (also a project which should not be our guiding light in terms of cost savings). Structures like the above would significantly increase costs along this portion of the OL alignment when compared to the retaining walls in several manners:
- Additional Lands Requirements - These require more space adjacent to the tracks themselves, meaning more land acquisition costs, expropriation negotiations, and outrage from individuals such as yourself over the loss of portions of spaces such as Jimmy Simpson. On the other hand, a retaining wall means that all the space taken is used for the transit, and no further lands are required.
- Greater Construction and Design Costs - these are more complex structures than the simple retaining wall, requiring in detail designs and systems for drainage, foliage, and load distribution across the seasons.
- Significantly Increased Maintenance Requirements - As annoying as graffiti is, its removal is about as cheap as any sort of maintenance can be, in that anyone can do it, at any time, with very little need for specialised equipment. Whatever money is saved on not needing to remove graffiti will be spent in short order on the maintenance of specialised individuals to conduct seasonal maintenance with specialised equipment on the walls, the foliage, and the systems. Never mind having to deal with all of the various requirements regarding foliage which this project's million stakeholders will throw into the mix.
It is fair to want for more aesthetic solutions in transit infrastructure, and fair to state that the cost for kilometer of transit in Toronto is exaggerated in context of what is managed in Asia and Europe. Unfortunately, these costs are the consequence of the institutions, society, and culture which exist in North America, and until the environment in which we build transit changes, and fewer individuals and institutions get to have a say, they are the reality which we must deal with. As a result of that reality, when there are clear-cut opportunities to cut costs and still deliver transit, they must be taken. It makes sense to pick a side, but it does not make sense to hate a project for its costs and hate a project for working to reduce them.
TossYourJacket
Senior Member
"Beg the city"? The City has no control of this project! Nor do they own the rail corridor. And what are you going to beg them to do? Write another strongly worded letter to the province that Doug will ignore? Because they literally cannot do anything more than that. It sucks, but that is our current situation.
This is 100% on the provincial government and their puppet, Metrolinx. And to be honest, the current conservative government does not care about the local impacts on left-voting areas like Leslieville or Riverside. Doing good things there won't win them any votes, so it does not matter to them. Plus, this is a government who love spiting their perceived enemies so much that during the pandemic they gave early vaccine access to basically all of downtown east except the postal codes in the gay village.
Also to have areas anywhere near as wide from the rail corridor after expansion as in the images you provided to build those kinds of terraces, you are talking about relocating streets and the expropriation of dozens of homes. Something no government is going to want to do for aesthetic reasons because it will generate more bad press than it is worth. It looks amazing, but I just don't think there would ever be the political will to make it happen sadly. Best we can get is maybe some fences plants can grow on. But if you've been to Vancouver, they put metal cages for climbers to grow on around the pillars of the Canada Line in Richmond and tbh, it's not great. You still see mostly concrete.
it would just be cheaper to invest in staff to regularly clean off the graffiti. Maybe Doug could donate some of his Canadian Tire Money to buy some power washers.
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416InTrouble
Active Member
It’s not tho. And those pictures were just examples for mainly the park areas on McGee, De Grassi (Bruce Mackey) and in Jimmie Simpson. There is room for some version of “terracing” and lands abutting the rail corridor are the cities jurisdiction because city parks run right up to the new corridor…. It should be a coordinated effort but alas…this is Doug Fords Ontario….
Space Gary
New Member
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Both TBMs are finished in Germany!
Monarch Butterfly
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Thankfully, not finished in the United States of America.Sign Up | LinkedIn
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Both TBMs are finished in Germany!