7.4 Maintenance and Storage Facility - IONrapidtransit.regionofwaterloo.ca/en/multimedialibrary/...7.4 Maintenance and Storage Facility A Maintenance and Storage Facility is required

Region of Waterloo Rapid Transit Project

Environmental Project Report

March 2012 139

7.4 Maintenance and Storage Facility

A Maintenance and Storage Facility is required to support the LRT component of the RT system. These

facilities typically include provision for service, inspection, repair and shunting.

Some of the common support operations found at maintenance and storage facilities include:

Crew office;

Dispatch center;

Machine shop;

Administration office;

Stores;

Employee / visitor parking; and

Outside material storage for signals, track

and traction power supplies.

A Maintenance and Storage Facility site evaluation ranked several sites against a set of five (5) criteria:

Site description;

Costs;

Operations;

Environmental and socio-economic impacts;

and

Land use.

The site that best met the identified requirements is located in the Northfield industrial area (518 Dutton

Drive) between the Waterloo Spur rail line and Highway 85 (Figure 7-14). This is near the northern limits

of the RT corridor, north of Weber Street and east of the Waterloo Spur.

Based on the City of Waterloo’s zoning by-law, current zoning on the site is 1-6 (Industrial 6) and its

property code is 736 (clubs, private and fraternal). The current zoning is compatible with the proposed

use. Land uses in the surrounding area are predominantly industrial and commercial, with a residential

neighbourhood approximately 250 m south of the property, on the south side of Weber Street.

The site is approximately 68,000 m2 (16.86 ac) in size. It is the former manufacturing and warehousing

facility of Bauer Industries, a textile manufacturer that provided products for the automotive industry. A

large manufacturing/warehouse building with office space and truck loading bays exists on the property.

Due to its location and configuration, it is not likely that the building can be reused for the Maintenance

and Storage Facility. A small woodlot takes up approximately one quarter of the property. The proposed

layout demonstrates that the full conceptual Maintenance and Storage Facility can be built with little

impact to this woodlot (see Volume 2: Functional Design Drawings, Sheet 55). A high tension hydro

corridor also runs along the southeastern edge of the land.

Rail access to and from the RT corridor will be in the southwest corner of the site. The site is

approximately 10 km north of GRT’s bus yard (Strasburg Barn) on Strasburg Road.

HIG

HW

AY 85

PA

RK

SID

E D

R

WEBER ST N DU

TT

ON

DR

HIG

HW

AY 85

This drawing has been prepared for the use of AECOM's client

and may not be used, reproduced or relied upon by third parties,

except as agreed by AECOM and its client, as required by law

or for use by governmental reviewing agencies. AECOM accepts

no responsibility, and denies any liability whatsoever, to any party

that modifies this drawing without AECOM's express written consent.

Datum: NAD 83, Zone 17Source: OBM, GRCA, ROW

1:2,000

November 2011 Figure 7-14

Maintenance and Storage Facility

Location

0 0.06 0.120.03

Kilometers

h

Legend

Roads

Rail

WaterlooWaterloo

KitchenerKitchener

Watercourses

Proposed LRT

Maintenance and Storage Facility

Rapid Transit Project

Transit Project Assessment Process




March 2012 141

7.5 Park and Ride Facilities

The RT corridor will include three (3) park and ride locations to provide access for riders at the following

locations:

Northfield Drive, Waterloo – near the interchange with Highway 85;

Fairview Park Mall, Kitchener – near the interchange of Fairway Road and Highway 8; and

Sportsworld Drive, Kitchener – near the interchange with Highway 8.

Specific site details will be addressed during future design phases.

7.6 Related Structures

A replacement/expansion program and order of magnitude cost estimate for each existing or new

structure requiring modifications as a result of the RT project was prepared under previous phases of this

project. The recommendations for each structure as they impact the current functional design are listed

below in Table 7.3.

Table 7.3 Proposed Structure Recommendations

LRT System (Conestoga Mall to Fairview Park Mall)

Structure New or Existing Proposed Work

Northfield Drive over Highway 85 Existing Remove asphalt and cast concrete curbs.

Waterloo Spur under Weber

Street

Existing Embankment slope removal.

Waterloo Spur over Cedar Creek

(Old Albert Street)

Existing Culvert extension.

Waterloo Spur over Silver

Lake/Laurel Creek

New Remove existing railway structure.

New structure for two (2) LRT tracks.

Pedestrian bridge to remain.

King Street under CN Guelph

Subdivision near Victoria Street

New New fully-grade separated crossing with road and LRT under the CN rail line.

Grade separation will be integrated with the multi-modal terminal at this location.

Borden Avenue over Schneider

Creek

Existing Existing structure to remain.

New structure to be superimposed over top of existing one.

Ottawa Street over Schneider

Creek

Existing Existing structure to remain.

New structure to be superimposed over top of existing one.

CN Huron Park Spur under

Highway 7/8

Existing Complete structure replacement with new single-span bridge.

142

CN Huron Park Spur over

Schneider Creek

New New bridge of same or similar construction adjacent to existing bridge.

Courtland Avenue over

Montgomery Creek

Existing No structural work required.

aBRT System (Fairview Park Mall to Ainslie Street Terminal)

Structure New or Existing Proposed Work

Highway 8 over the Grand River Existing MTO is currently constructing the widening of Highway 8.

The future structure will be wide enough to accommodate the bus bypass shoulders.

Highway 8 over King Street Existing Highway widening will be part of the MTO’s Grand River bridge widening project.

Highway 8 over Sportsworld

Drive


Highway 8 Flyover to Highway

401


Highway 401 under Fountain

Street


Highway 401 over CPR Waterloo

Subdivision


Highway 401 under Speedsville

Road


Highway 401 over the Speed

River and Tributaries


Highway 401 over CN Fergus

Spur


Hespeler Road over CPR

Waterloo Subdivision

New The Region is constructing a new structure under a separate project.

The structure will be wide enough to accommodate an 8 m RT corridor.

No structural work required as part of this project.

7.7 Utilities

The following assumptions were made with respect to utilities:

Utilities that cross the RT corridor transversely will generally not be problematic and these utilities will

remain in place unless there is a compelling reason to remove or replace the utility. However, all

utility crossings should be reviewed to determine if the transverse crossing could potentially become

problematic;

The 8.0 m RT right-of-way width will not need to be isolated from utilities;

If the utility is less than 30 years old, the utility will likely remain in place;



March 2012 143

If the utility is between 30 and 40 years old, the break history/maintenance records of the utility will be

reviewed. A Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) inspection could be used to determine structural

integrity;

If the utility is 40 years old or more, the utility should be replaced; and

If utilities are to be replaced, the first priority will be to try to move the utility outside of the RT corridor.

Co-ordination with Utilities

Upon review of existing construction drawings from previous Regional and municipal projects, staff

superimposed the alignment of the proposed transit corridor to assess the location of the alignment in

relation to existing utility infrastructure. In addition, an examination of possible road widening alignments

required to accommodate RT was undertaken.

A high level review of the resulting details was conducted through a series of meetings held individually

with representatives from Hydro One Networks and each of the tenant municipal and private utilities,

except Allstream. Allstream initially declined to meet at this functional design stage, but desires

involvement at subsequent stages. Discussions at the meetings varied considerably, but fell into the

following general topics:

Impact of transit corridor on parallel and perpendicular running utilities;

Stray current impacts and mitigation;

Cost sharing between parties;

Future proceedings for utilities to access plants for maintenance and upgrading;

Lane closures; and

Vertical conflicts with overhead utility lines that are under/over the transit corridor.

The Region is in the process of completing a detailed topographic survey of the proposed RT corridors in

Kitchener and Waterloo. Through cooperation with municipal and private utility representatives, field

locates of existing underground infrastructure will be done at the same time and tied into the topographic

survey. This will allow the generation of a comprehensive and accurate base plan for future design.

Going forward, the municipal and private utility representatives have agreed to work cooperatively with

the Region in its design and construction of the proposed RT project. Ongoing meetings will be

scheduled to ensure the design and implementation of any relocation is done in a timely fashion and

budgeted appropriately by the responsible parties.

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7.4 Maintenance and Storage Facility - IONrapidtransit.regionofwaterloo.ca/en/multimedialibrary/...7.4 Maintenance and Storage Facility A Maintenance and Storage Facility is required