September 19, 2005 was the official groundbreaking ceremony for the Richmond Oval. It is scheduled to open in 2008. This will be the venue for long track speed skating during the 2010 Olympics.

Through to the spring the "construction" will consist primarily of pre-loading the site, construction for real will begin in May of 2006.

For more information see the City of Richmond Press Release

It is quite well known to most in the industry that Vancouver has been undergoing a incredible construction boom. The Globe and Mail has reported that this construction boom has caused 40% inflation in construction costs since 2002 (when the budgeting for 2010 was done). This comes as no surprise to those familiar with the construction industry. A number of projects i am aware of have undergone huge redesigns due to higher than expected costs (especially steel construction). I have also heard of cases where there has been difficulty in finding contractors for the trades.

The Environmental Assessment office Cleared the RAV line's proposal for a cut and cover tunnel down Cambie.

This was of course no surprise. It is pretty clear that the issue only went back to the Assessment office to prevent it from becoming and election issue during the Provincial election.

I really think that RAV should offer some sort of compensation for some of the businesses in the area. Or at least offer some services to help those businesses out.

While I think it is true that for many of the businesses the increased access that the RAV line will provide will increase their business in the long term, some businesses wont be able to survive the reduction in traffic that the construction will surely cause.

One of the exciting legacies of the 2010 Winter Olympics is the "Hydrogen Highway". This is a plan to have enough hydrogen fuelling stations in the Vancouver/Whistler area so that hydrogen can be a viable fuel source in the area during the Olympics. This solves one of the main issues with Hydrogen fuelling. Nobody can make any cars until their is a fuelling structure, but nobody can build a structure unless there are vehicles to use it. This Hydrogen Highway should help make the 2010 Olympics a showcase of Hydrogen technology. For more information see NRC page on the Hydrogen Highway

Turin isn't planning on a full fuelling infrastructure. However, they are planning on having as part of the fleet, hydrogen powered scooters. These are little scooters that will be able to go up to 22km/h and can go up to 2 hours before refuelling. So far I haven't seen a picture or a description of these scooters, so I'm not sure exactly what they mean by the term "scooter". With only a 2 hour range these are quite limited on how they could be used. Cool nonetheless though.

So design for the RAV line has got to be kicking into high gear. However, there still hasn't been any public information (that I can find) about what technology they are going to be using.

Most people seem to believe that they are going to be using the Bombardier's linear induction motor technology that was used on Skytrain. However, the reports submitted to the Environmental Assessment Office indicates that the line will not be connected to the existing line. Also they are building a new works and maintenance yard in Richmond. If they were using Skytrain technology they probably would not have built a whole new yard, but would have just expanded the existing one in Burnaby.