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Spadina Subway Extension


Mr. Engineer

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Fact is, the vicinity is going to be called Vaughan Metropolitan Centre (formerly Vaughan Corporate Centre), not Vaughan Centre. Since the TTC is serving an area outside of Toronto, relations would tell me they should respect the City of Vaughan's decision.

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Fact is, the vicinity is going to be called Vaughan Metropolitan Centre (formerly Vaughan Corporate Centre), not Vaughan Centre. Since the TTC is serving an area outside of Toronto, relations would tell me they should respect the City of Vaughan's decision.

Except that that staff - rightfully - pointed out that they don't like naming stations after branded developments. Which VMC is, or at least will be when it is built. Eventually.

Dan

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If I was on Council I would have told Vaughan that if they, instead of TTC, assumed the expected losses on the line north of Steeles ($10m p.a. estimated) they could call the thing Pierre Poutine Station for all I cared. Rob Ford would love it as it would be a sale of naming rights!

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  • 3 months later...

Today was the official completion of the first 1.6 kilometres of twin tunnels of the extension.

The new tunnels represent one complete section of the twin tunnels that will connect the future Sheppard West and Finch West Stations. The tunnel boring machines (TBMs) named "Holey" and "Moley" bored the tunnels.

"Holey" broke through the headwall at the Keele Street extraction shaft on May 1, completing the first tunnelling milestone for the project. "Moley" broke through on June 4, completing the second tunnel for this section. The extraction shaft, where the TBMs arrived, is located in the centre of Keele Street, just south of Finch Avenue West. Both TBMs are now being dismantled and moved to the second launch site and will bore the next section of tunnel between Sheppard West Station and Downsview Station.

Press release.

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Today was the official completion of the first 1.6 kilometres of twin tunnels of the extension.

Funny they didn't just say the first mile..

I'm curious as to why we haven't really seen any construction pictures of this project. I know a 1.6 km hole in the ground isn't exactly something the press or politicians would be lining up to get a photo op for. But compare it to the PR that the MTA in NY has put out with all their recent capital projects. All we got on this milestone was a picture of Rob Ford's head...

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I'm curious as to why we haven't really seen any construction pictures of this project. I know a 1.6 km hole in the ground isn't exactly something the press or politicians would be lining up to get a photo op for. But compare it to the PR that the MTA in NY has put out with all their recent capital projects. All we got on this milestone was a picture of Rob Ford's head...

Check:

http://www3.ttc.ca/S...llery/index.jsp

for the most recent - there are a couple of galleries on the site.

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After people calling this a subway to a Walmart is it really a great idea to brand the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre bus terminal, the SmartCentres Terminal?

York Region’s new subway will break new ground in more ways than one with the awarding of corporate branding to its bus terminal.

The passengers embarking and disembarking from buses at the Spadina subway extension’s final station starting in 2015 will do so at the “SmartCentres Terminal — Vaughan Metropolitan Centre.”

“It’s the spirit of accommodation,” Vaughan Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua said of the compromise, saying it was “equitable” and that it made more sense to make a deal than to simply expropriate the land.

“I think in government you have to be flexible and be mindful of the public good,” he said.

The location was proposed by the company in exchange for them paying to construct the underground connection to the subway station and the deal allows the settling of several issues amicably, Viva spokesperson Dale Albers said.

The SmartCentres brand and its ubiquitous family of penguins logo are no doubt familiar to big-box store shoppers.

Full story

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Guest orionvi

After people calling this a subway to a Walmart is it really a great idea to brand the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre bus terminal, the SmartCentres Terminal?

Full story

Bad idea. The station name is way too long: imagine the tiling!

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After people calling this a subway to a Walmart is it really a great idea to brand the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre bus terminal, the SmartCentres Terminal?

Full story

It is a rather lengthy and ridiculous name, but it will only apply to the bus terminal, which presumably YRT will maintain/operate. So they'll have to figure out how to cram that onto their destos. Given time, I don't know how the public will react to the name. How many people still call the Rogers Centre SkyDome? SmartCentres is such a generic name (do they even given names to their various developments?!) that it will probably only show up on signage and on paper despite popular usage. Unless they were planning on incorporating some useful retail in the terminal. With all of the re-/development going on in that area, how much longer will the WalMart be expected to survive. It doesn't quite fit with the downtown image of high-rises and office towers Vaughan is trying to portray.

The subway station itself won't get the appendage name. I don't think the TTC is entertaining the idea of selling off naming rights to subway stations just yet. Though the idea has made the rounds before. I think during Lastman's term they had considered selling off the naming rights to the Sheppard line to help pay for construction. I hope that it doesn't come around again with construction on any of the LRT lines, unless they happen to work with the nature of the stop, say the Science Centre at Don Mills, just to avoid duplicating the name uness they plan on hyphenating names with the cross-streets like LA. The bus terminal has a time limit of no more than 60 years. Thankfully it's not something longer like 99 years. Will SmartCentres even be around in 60 years with the push towards intensification in the GTA?

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Welcome to 2012 folks....you can either pay higher taxes to fund these projects or you can let the "walmarts" of the world throw in a few $. Your choice. Besides, it's a public transit station, it's not like they are naming your first child for you. Who cares what it's called, as long as it gets built.

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Thye're not going to do this for every mile completed are they? jeez, you'd think they'd just completed the Chunnel. :rolleyes:

The funny thing is...it's a reenactment.

Once the boring machine broke through, they backed it up and poured a soft plaster 'plug' at the end of the tunnell. The softer plaster makes a much more dramatic breakthrough than the real event.

If you look at the pictures of the boring machine breaking through, you can see the lines from the forms that were used to pour the cement for the 'plug'. The cement is a nice clean grey, whereas the original soil looks like dirt.

They did the same thing at Niagara with Big Becky, but in that case the construction workers filmed the original breakthrough and put it on Youtube, before the province could get around to arranging the photo op. Wonder if anyone filmed the authentic Holey/Moley breakthroughs.

- Ron

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The funny thing is...it's a reenactment.

Once the boring machine broke through, they backed it up and poured a soft plaster 'plug' at the end of the tunnell. The softer plaster makes a much more dramatic breakthrough than the real event.

If you look at the pictures of the boring machine breaking through, you can see the lines from the forms that were used to pour the cement for the 'plug'. The cement is a nice clean grey, whereas the original soil looks like dirt.

They did the same thing at Niagara with Big Becky, but in that case the construction workers filmed the original breakthrough and put it on Youtube, before the province could get around to arranging the photo op. Wonder if anyone filmed the authentic Holey/Moley breakthroughs.

- Ron

They do the same thing with EVERY SINGLE tunnelling project. And have been since the 70s, if not earlier.

By the way, it's not plaster. If it is a TBM designed for rock they use shotcrete. For EPB machines like the ones they are using in Toronto, it's more likely to be bentonite slurry.

Dan

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  • 3 months later...

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