Quote:
Originally Posted by berneyarms
Really?
The main tram lines through the city centre in nearby Munich are closed from mid-May until mid-September due to major civil works.
That's four months!
I do love how people in this country seem to immediately be experts in civil engineering and can tell exactly how long they should take.
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I am not a civil engineer and even if I was, I do not have sufficient information to determine whether or not a two month closure is justified.
It is obvious that good progress is being made with the modified trackwork now substantially in place. Signalling and overhead changes are very modest and hardly likely to add significantly to the closure given the uncomplicated nature of these systems on a tramway - the only urgent change would be to ensure that the facing points approaching the Abbey Street stop are detected.
One thing that has been very noticeable in recent years on the big railway is that works which would traditionally have been considered minor and not meriting a line closure are now considered to be major and justification for extended line closures.
The renewal of the Tolka Bridge at East Wall a few years ago resulted in more line closures and disruption than did the original DART construction. On one occasion the line north of Connolly, was closed for an entire weekend to remove a turnout into Fairview depot thus gratuitously disrupting tens of thousands of passengers for the most trivial piece of work.
Many works now appear to be planned with extensive padding to ensure that it is almost impossible to over-run even if this means that the line remain closed long after the job has finished and everybody has gone home !