Postby Tom H. » October 18th, 2012, 10:01 am
Floating slab is being installed in the U of M transitway this week. (Tcmetro mentioned that this was in place last week, but I think he just meant the 'trenches' into which the floating slab is being seated.) The slabs themselves are ~20' long by ~4' wide by ~6" thick, with solid rubber pads spaced around the bottom and around the sides. The slabs appear to be connected to each other by elastic bands with rubber pads in between.
Slabs are fully installed in the south guideway (eastbound) and about halfway complete in the north guideway. Sorry I don't have any pics, but there are two slabs sitting out in the open at the (former) intersection of Washington & Union. I can't tell how the tracks will be installed on these slabs, because the rubber pads leave gaps around the edges of the slabs, so they can't simply pour concrete in there, but they can't leave gaps in the final guideway either (at least not big ones, since there are vehicular crossings, e.g. at Church St.).