November 17, 2014

If you’ve been travelling along Davis Drive lately, you’ll notice an exciting development taking shape at Longford/Parkside Drive: construction of the vivastations is progressing. Out of the 6 vivastation platforms to be built along Davis, the two platforms at Longford/Parkside are the furthest along. Construction of the westbound platforms at Main Street and Southlake Hospital started later, but are steadily following behind.

As we previously communicated , the concrete platforms at the Longford/Parkside stations have been poured and the connections for the canopies have been prepared. The next step is installing the steel structure, an important station component. More information on the canopy installation is below.

Dates: Tuesday, November 18*
Work hours: 7am-5pm

What you need to know:

• On November 18, the westbound Longford/Parkside canopy’s three steel structural sections will be installed
• During the delivery and installation of the steel sections, the dedicated left-turn lanes on Davis Drive at Parkside/Longford will be closed. Left-turns will still be permitted from the shared straight through/ right turn lane
• Weather-permitting, as early as next week the eastbound Longford/Parkside canopy will be installed

building a vivastation

The vivastations along Davis will be modern, strong and very functional. The curved Viva blue glass that makes up the canopy is surprisingly rugged – this glass is curved, tempered and laminated for strength, which prevents it from breaking into sharp pieces if it is cracked or broken.

Although the canopy is made up of nearly 100 individual panes of glass, each will be connected to its neighbour by small fasteners, known as “spiders” – so visually, the glass will look like it’s all one piece. The steel sections are aligned perfectly in advance of the glass being delivered and installed. Once these important components are in place, there’s still a lot of work to do to get the vivastation ready for riders prior to the rapidway opening late next year.

Each station includes two platforms/canopies – one for eastbound passengers and one for westbound passengers.

The vivaNext rapidways are built consecutively, enabling our designers and construction experts to use the construction experience of previous segments and continually fine tune the design and installation methods. Lessons learned from Highway 7 have helped us find ways to modify the design, to make the canopies easier and more efficient to install. Because minimizing traffic impacts along Davis is important, we’ve focused on finding strategies to install these huge canopies in a very small space with minimal lane closures.

We understand that construction can be disruptive and we thank you in advance for your patience. If you have questions about the rapidway project, please contact:

Kristina Bergeron
Community Liaison Specialist
Telephone: 905.886.6767 Ext.71051
Cell: 905.505.1347
Email: kristina.bergeron@york.ca

Michelle Dudzik
Community Liaison Specialist
Telephone: 905.886.6767 Ext. 71096
Cell: 905.716.7663
Email: michelle.dudzik@york.ca

* Please note: As with other road construction projects, some work may be rescheduled due to weather. We’ll provide advance notice whenever possible.