News about the bus terminal floor is so yesterday. Construction of the walls is underway! Okay, so the floor isn’t finished, and it’s still an exciting part of the project. And it may be a while before any concrete is poured for the walls. Still, seeing the project go vertical for the first time is worth our attention. Here are pictorial updates of both parts of the project.
In the first photo above, you can see that six sections of the floor have been poured, bringing the total to date to about 7,000 cubic yards of concrete. The seventh pour is in progress right now. As you see in the second photo above, the first two forms for the concrete walls were put in place on Thursday afternoon and more may be added today. Assembled forms are laying along the side of the hole. It seems to take a few days to build one form but only a few hours to install it.
Also of note is significant, new work on the light rail passenger platform. The first photo below shows the platform canopy at the existing passenger station between Wewatta Street and Union Station. The second photo shows 14 foundations that will support a similar platform canopy at the new light rail station between the Consolidate Main Line (freight tracks) and the bus terminal. Placement of the station is now obvious for the first time. About half of it will be in the 17th Street view plane, and the other half will extend behind Glass House.
For the sake of comparison, there are 13 posts supporting the existing canopy so it seems that the new canopy will be slightly longer than the old one. Here’s a peek at what the new canopy might look like. From a distance of 200 feet above, it appears that each foundation is about 10 feet square and about three feet thick. If a bus terminal can float, I guess a light rail canopy can fly; therefore, you need hefty foundations for both.
Please see our Denver Union Station page at JobSiteVistor.com for 20 photos added this week.
I hope they have a line item in their budget to put up time clocks in new (and for that matter all) stations, turn those ‘next train’ boards by 90 degrees and actually replace them with something functional like this: http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/jpodocs/repts_te/13845_files/image011.jpg
Another thing would be small Euro-style kiosks where I can buy a drink, snack and a newspaper or magazine plus tickets. Why’s that absent here?
Ota, I’m not sure about time clocks, but I think you can count on plenty of the products and services that you are looking for. The roof of the bus terminal will be at street level and is expected to be lined with vendors and stores of all kinds. With nearly 200,000 people a day passing through the area, once the transportation facilities are fully built, there will be an irresistible attraction for retail businesses.