Tri-City residents could see trains runnings along a section of the Evergreen Line between Lougheed Mall and Burquitlam as soon as this summer, according to Amanda Farrell, executive director of the project.
And while the cars will only be testing the tracks, they are a sign of how far things have come with the construction of the rapid transit line and how close it is to being complete, she said.
The North Road section is the closest part of the line to be completed and Farrell noted that the elevated guideway and track work is now finished in the area.
"I'm sure a lot of you drive by there," she told Coquitlam council during a committee meeting on Monday. "You will see that we are actually doing the final road works. The landscaping is going in and a lot of the parking is back So that is going very well."
Burquitlam Station, located at Clarke Road and Como Lake, is 60% complete, while Coquitlam Central Station (the West Coast Express station and bus loop) is 50% complete, Lincoln Station is 25% complete and the end of the line, Lafarge Lake-Douglas Station, is 45% complete.
She also noted that the elevated guideway is two-spans away from being complete near Douglas College, which means the giant yellow gantry crane will no longer be a common site in the skies of the Town Centre.
But it wasn't all good news during Farrell's presentation.
She acknowledged the delays associated with the tunnel boring section in Port Moody and said that digging the 2 km portion of the line had been more difficult than expected.
"It is no secret that it has been challenging," she said. "It was always going to be the most challenging part of the project."
Sinkhole issues on Cecile Drive in Port Moody halted progress last month as maintenance work was required on a giant boring machine that is digging the tunnel.
But things have been running smoothly since Feb. 12, she said, and 10% of the tunnel has been completed in the last 10 days. When the boring machine is operational, it can dig 12 rings a day, with each of the 1.5 m rings used to hold up the tunnel.
So far, 40% of the entire tunnel is complete and Farrell expects that the digging will cross the Coquitlam border later in the spring.
Because crews are digging uphill, they believe that the soil and water table will become more consistent, making it easier for the boring machine to operate, she said. "The contractor says it will get easier as we go up," she said. "So for what it is worth, I will put that on the table."
At the beginning of the month, Farrell announced that due to the slow boring process, the Evergreen Line would be delaying its opening from summer 2016 to the fall of the same year.
@GMcKennaTC
