Speaking of which, they used an image similiar to this during Barrie RER expansion announcement, at the LSW expansion announcement.

View attachment 47374

The suspension bridge at the rear. Is that the proposed style for the rail-to-rail grade separation for Davenport Diamond? A suspension bridge? I can't find any locations in Toronto that looks similiar to this bridge.
 
mdrejhon said:
Speaking of which, they used an image similiar to this during Barrie RER expansion announcement, at the LSW expansion announcement.

View attachment 47374

The suspension bridge at the rear. Is that the proposed style for the rail-to-rail grade separation for Davenport Diamond? A suspension bridge? I can't find any locations in Toronto that looks similiar to this bridge.
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Can you reattach that attachment? I'm getting an error message when I try to open it.
 
Here you go:

Barrie.jpg


I am not sure if they would choose a suspension bridge idea for the Davenport grade separation but, if they do, they better'd make it fancy looking -- as an attraction. Maybe even put a pedestrian path. Perhaps with LED lights like Louisville's Big Four Bridge (Which I visited very recently, during Kentucky Derby -- it's now a very popular pedestrian bridge). A few million dollar worth of lighting makes a 100-year-old bridge look MUCH better, although it probably might not be practical a bit too close to the residential areas. Now, a suspension bridge would have far less mass than a trusswork bridge, and probably look a lot better.

Maybe something more discreet, such as putting the colored LED lights only on the underside of the bridge -- they definitely make underpasses look much better. Ditto for Gardiner.
 

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mdrejhon said:
Here you go:

View attachment 47741

I am not sure if they would choose a suspension bridge idea for the Davenport grade separation but, if they do, they better'd make it fancy looking -- as an attraction. Maybe even put a pedestrian path. Perhaps with LED lights like Louisville's Big Four Bridge (Which I visited very recently, during Kentucky Derby -- it's now a very popular pedestrian bridge). A few million dollar worth of lighting makes a 100-year-old bridge look MUCH better, although it probably might not be practical a bit too close to the residential areas. Now, a suspension bridge would have far less mass than a trusswork bridge, and probably look a lot better.

Maybe something more discreet, such as putting the colored LED lights only on the underside of the bridge -- they definitely make underpasses look much better. Ditto for Gardiner.
Click to expand...

They did this for one section of the Gardiner, it was quite nice

4034722687_3ca0a54006.jpg
 

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robmausser said:
They did this for one section of the Gardiner, it was quite nice

View attachment 47966
Click to expand...
They should make it the condition of the Hybrid approach. Install LED lighting on the underneath. Maybe not that much dramatic lighting for the whole multi-kilometer stretch, but at least do a more subdued "edge lighting" or "accent lighting" approach. It will make waterfront and development more attractive despite the hulkiness of a viaduct.

(I support the tear-down option now, but I am not hard-set against Hybrid.)
 
Pro hybrid types are giving it the old "it's not pretty because prettying it was delayed pending EA decision". Which works to a point but it ain't gonna be no Mona Lisa afterwards either, and especially a decade or so after given Toronto's history of maintaining public art.
 
If prettying it up means stringing some LED lights on the underside, then I am going to be extremely disappointed. The photo above doesn't impress me at all.
 
wopchop said:
If prettying it up means stringing some LED lights on the underside, then I am going to be extremely disappointed. The photo above doesn't impress me at all.
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That was a low-budget demonstration.

Here's a proper retrofit: See better example. (100 year old bridge that's been LEDified up).

Another example: The mostly ordinary I-35W Saint Anthony Falls bridge in Texas (concrete) is normally lit in blue at night, but becomes all fancy only during events. Even if it's kept a simple solid color 90% of the time for simplicity and less circus-like, and only using special colors during special occasions.

The point remains, is that LED retrofit is a big improvement to most boring bridges. Even a luxurious proper LED fitting could add less than 1% to the budget. For many bridges it costs well less than a million dollars nowadays, and for Gardiner, would cost only about three or so million dollars, and would actually improve safety by making the area a less dangerous place at night.
 
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mdrejhon said:
That was a low-budget demonstration.

Here's a proper retrofit: See better example. (100 year old bridge that's been LEDified up).

The point remains, is that LED retrofit is a big improvement to most boring bridges. Even a luxurious proper LED fitting could add less than 1% to the budget.
Click to expand...

Still not impressed. So the Gardner will look cool at night, but look like garbage during the day. Great. Hopefully the beautification campaign is more balanced than lighting.

Also, I like truss bridges a lot and don't find them boring :p Different strokes.

EDIT: If we are going to have this discussion, should probably go over to the Gardiner Thread.
 
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LEDs are only good in the dark. How about a solution that looks pretty during the day too?
 
Public Meeting to Discuss Technical Studies and Overpass Panel Recommendations

Please join Metrolinx on June 23 to learn more about the technical studies we have been working on (e.g. noise and vibration assessment). We will be sharing preliminary results from studies to brief the community on what the assessments show and where mitigation is recommended to minimize the impacts of increased service.

The meeting will also present the recommendations from the Davenport Community Rail Overpass Residents’ Reference Panel.

Tuesday, June 23, 2015
6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Presentation at 7:00 pm
Davenport Perth Neighbourhood Centre*
1900 Davenport Road
Toronto, Ontario
 
Looking at OpenStreetMap, were a second exit constructed from the ends of the Lansdowne TTC subway platforms that would put it within 100m of the line. The question is what a GO stop means for the building in between and the rest of that block generally, and (what I presume is) the Lansdowne Barns site to the north of that in terms of specific sites, plus development pressure generally.
 
They definitely included the LED lighting ideas.

Yes, it should be pretty during the day, but it needs to be pretty at night TOO.
 
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