General Update/Rumour thread [Urban Ottawa]

[Acajack]

The Kettle Island (Montée Paiement-Aviation Parkway) is also logical because most of the interprovincial heavy truck traffic has two origins:

- intercity truck traffic between Montreal and Gatineau (Réno-Dépôt, Métro, etc. supplying the Outaouais from Montreal-area distribution and warehousing centres) that has to go through Ottawa via the 417 because of the lack of a good highway on the Quebec side

- local Ottawa-Gatineau truck traffic from large distribution and warehousing centres concentrated near the 417 in south-east Ottawa in the Innes/Star Top/Hawthorne/Walkley area supplying locations on the Quebec side

Couple this new bridge with the completion of Autoroute 50 to the Montreal area around 2010, and this will take substantial traffic pressure of the highly-distressed Lowertown/King Edward part of Ottawa.

Although it probably won’t be a main goal of the new bridge (certainly not stated by anybody!), Kettle Island will also alleviate some commuter traffic pressure, as origin/destination studies show that the inner east end of Ottawa is the second work trip generator on the Ontario side (after downtown Ottawa) for residents in the central/eastern part of Gatineau. Most of these people work just across the river from where they live, at places like Montfort, Cité collégiale, RCMP, francophone schools and school board headquarters. But currently they have to drive into what is basically downtown Ottawa (Lowertown) on King Edward when they have no business at all there, and then come back eastbound towards St. Laurent, Montreal Rd, etc. which is a very circuitous routing.

It’s the worst-kept secret in town that Ottawa politicians aren’t keen on new links to Quebec because they fear they’d lose residents and businesses to Gatineau if the traffic wasn’t so bad. But in this case, I think the situation around King Edward is getting so critical that they can no longer put off the logical solution.