FRIDAY
DECEMBER 5, 2014
TRI-CITIES
volunteers to finish First World War replica trench at museum
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Traffic tie-ups set to lessen? EVERGREEN LINE WORK IS NOW HALFWAY DONE
Jeremy DEUTSCH
dations are installed in the entire project, while the guideway track has been As the year draws to a installed between Lougheed close, residents in the Tri- Town Centre and Como Lake Cities fending off traffic woes Avenue. In Port Moody, the at-grade from the Evergreen Line can start to breathe a little easier. guideway structure is comThe project has reached a plete, while track installation halfway point and officials has begun. The tunnel in charge of boring work, constr ucting which started the billion-doleast of Barnet lar line suggest We think in Highway people should and will end start to see terms of traffic up south of traffic issues impacts, the KemsleyStreet reduce in the most significant in Coquitlam, coming year. is about one“We think in ones are now third comterms of trafbehind us. plete. fic impacts, The borthe most – Amanda Farrell ing machine significant Evergreen Line Alice, named ones are now after Alice behind us,” said Amanda Farrell, the Wilson, Canada’s first female Evergreen Line’s project dir- geologist, is currently undergoing maintenance and will ector. So far, the project is still on be back up and running later track to be complete in 2016, this month. Farrell noted some of the with a number of milestones already complete by the end key construction elements left in the project include of 2014. According to the Evergreen the elevated guideway along team, the segmental guide- Pinetree, parts of the at-grade way along North and Clarke guideway along the rail corriroads in Coquitlam is com- dor in Coquitlam and work plete and now guideway on the stations. As for 2015, the first part installation has started along Pinetree Way near Coquitlam of the year will be spent completing the elevated guideCentre. All the columns and foun- ways, boring the tunnel and jdeutsch@thenownews.com
Help local kids
Jeremy DEUTSCH
jdeutsch@thenownews.com With the Christmas season in full swing, there’s still plenty of time to donate to a great cause. This week, the Tri-Cities NOW launched its annual Caring for Tri-Cities Kids campaign, formerly known as Pennies for Presents. The fundraiser allows the SHARE Family & Community Services Society to buy Christmas presents for TriCities children whose parents are unable to do so. Since 1990, it has raised more than $150,000 for local kids. Helping out is easy. Cash donations are welcome at locations throughout CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
JEREMY DEUTSCH/NOW
Construction on the Evergreen Line, shown here at Clarke Road and Como Lake Avenue on Thursday, is scheduled for completion by 2016. finishing the at-grade guideway along the rail line. Once those jobs are complete, the focus will be on installing the track and systems and outfitting the stations, with work on the plazas and landscaping to be done later in the year. By the second half of 2015, residents should start to see the first trains being tested on the track. While 2014 is coming to an end, the project hasn’t been without its glitches this year. Most notably, it suffered two construction mishaps. In March, a temporary concrete spacer, which acts as a
support and sits between the top of the support column and the lower side of a guideway, failed at the intersection of Clarke Road and Como Lake Avenue, causing the structure to drop and rotate. Evergreen officials said the most likely explanation for that mishap was that work was being done on the other end of the beam using heating pads, which caused friction and a small slip. Three months later a large launching truss near a guideway slipped slightly as work was being done along a section of the line running along North Road between
Cottonwood and Foster avenues. An investigation determined operator error was behind that problem. Though complaints about the line were common at the beginning of the work, those concerns appear to have somewhat subsided. Farrell noted the team does hear from residents from time to time, but tries to address concerns as they come up. “We’re very pleased with the progress [of the line]. It’s a massive project,” she said. “I think generally, in terms of the relationships with the community, they’re very strong.”
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