Earl Grey Drive Extension Project

[Paige]

From the linked article:

An old roadway design is seeing new light in Kanata. Despite being delayed for almost 30 years, an underpass under Terry Fox Drive at Earl Grey Drive is proposed to be built this year. The funding is secured and construction is soon to be underway. Although it is a very large-budget project – one of the largest on the books for this year – there was very little information shared that would justify the project’s cost. We think the public consultation process is a very important step in the modification of our public infrastructure, so we took it upon ourselves to shed some light into the project. This blog post will discuss the background of the project, the budget, the proposed design, and finally our view on it.

Any insight on this? Seems like crappy old fashioned road-centric thinking appropriate for somewhere as awful as Kanata Centrum. I did not see anything posted about this elsewhere. If it's a duplicate, sorry.

https://bikeottawa.ca/2024/03/04/ear...-it-worth-20m/

[Paul29]

Originally Posted by Paige

Seems like crappy old fashioned road-centric thinking appropriate for somewhere as awful as Kanata Centrum.

What makes Centrum so awful is the traffic. What kills me is the plan is 29 years old.

I always wondered why the dead end next to Montana's..... now I know. a 29 year old "plan".

[Harley613]

A visual of how it will connect.

[Paige]

Originally Posted by Harley613

A visual of how it will connect.

The article contains this:

[Dengler Avenue]

I wonder whether it’s a tacit admission that Campeau Drive can’t be widened…

[Harley613]

Ahh I didn't open the article. I saw this in the news a couple of days ago and had the screenshot saved on my phone from a discussion I had with a friend.

[DTcrawler]

Such a stupid and unnecessary project at a time where the city its scraping whatever pennies it can away from other budgets.

[Harley613]

Originally Posted by DTcrawler

Such a stupid and unnecessary project at a time where the city its scraping whatever pennies it can away from other budgets.

... unless Costco is relocating to that big empty lot behind Crappy Tire with a gas bar, in which case this project would be an absolute necessity.

[DTcrawler]

Originally Posted by Harley613

... unless Costco is relocating to that big empty lot behind Crappy Tire with a gas bar, in which case this project would be an absolute necessity.

If costco wants to do that, costco can pay for the underpass. or better yet they can pay cops' OT to direct traffic.

Transit is spiralling out of control, we can't figure out how to keep bridges open in the winter, sidewalks and roads are crumbling, there's a housing crisis... but heaven forbid people have to wait in traffic to get to one out of six costcos in the region.

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by DTcrawler

Such a stupid and unnecessary project at a time where the city its scraping whatever pennies it can away from other budgets.

There's always money for road projects, especially if they help big box stores. If you want to stop this, tell them buses or pedestrians might use this.

[DTcrawler]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

There's always money for road projects, especially if they help big box stores. If you want to stop this, tell them buses or pedestrians might use this.

Crazy to think that we built dozens of O-Train stations where it actually rains and snows on the damn platform, just so we could have enough money to save suburbanites from having to wait at a red light for too long.

[skyscraperaccount]

Originally Posted by DTcrawler

Crazy to think that we built dozens of O-Train stations where it actually rains and snows on the damn platform, just so we could have enough money to save suburbanites from having to wait at a red light for too long.

There were no suburbanites clamouring for this afaik. Be nice to have an LRT station though...where dat?

[Ottawacurious]

From the report, justification is to:
As identified within the City’s Transportation Master Plan, the Earl Grey Drive Extension
Project will improve traffic flow in the Kanata Centrum area and will greatly improve bus
service by providing a more direct route to and from Terry Fox Station.

So if it's actually about transit.....what is it linking to Terry Fox by going in that direction?

In the motion, it includes lands the city will expropriate. A map certainly would have been handy!


https://imgur.com/gallery/6pUmUEI

https://i.imgur.com/XFMUwdd.jpeg

[DTcrawler]

Originally Posted by Ottawacurious

So if it's actually about transit.....what is it linking to Terry Fox by going in that direction?

The only bus route I can think of that would potentially benefit from this is route 404 for CTC game day & event service. Instead of serving Terry Fox station and then taking Lord Byng, left onto Kanata Ave., left onto Campeau, and finally left onto Terry Fox SB, the new underpass would open up the possibility of buses serving Terry Fox station then continuing WB on Roland Michener, left onto Earl Grey and underneath Terry Fox, then right on Didsbury and right onto Terry Fox SB.

There’s also the possibility of having route 88 (future route 68) take the above routing to get onto Terry Fox instead of taking Kanata Ave SB and Katimavik Rd. WB, though that would be a boneheaded move as you’d abandon service to a residential area in favour of a highway interchange.

[J.OT13]

Here's an idea: an intersection. The off ramp intersection is a bit close, so re-configure the highway ramps to reduce the amount of space it uses. Bonus, more space for housing!

[Ottawacurious]

I was looking at 'future O train locations' here: https://open.ottawa.ca/datasets/786c....909385%2C6.89

And noticed Terry Fox and Didsbury have stops. I know we are years and years away from it but if they separate the projects, maybe it's easier to message? The train would go through where this is proposed no? Or, is that in addition?

[harls]

Originally Posted by Ottawacurious

I was looking at 'future O train locations' here: https://open.ottawa.ca/datasets/786c....909385%2C6.89

And noticed Terry Fox and Didsbury have stops. I know we are years and years away from it but if they separate the projects, maybe it's easier to message? The train would go through where this is proposed no? Or, is that in addition?

You sound so.. curious.

[Ottawacurious]

Always wondering about things!

[BanjoUnchained]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...ears-1.7610537

Construction of a tunnel under Terry Fox Drive near Highway 417 in Kanata is expected to cause years of lane reductions and traffic detours in the area.

The tunnel project will extend Earl Grey Drive in the Kanata Centrum shopping centre to meet the Didsbury Road intersection on the other side of Terry Fox Drive.

The tunnel is expected to improve traffic flow and provide a new connection to Terry Fox Station, according to the City of Ottawa.

The 140-metre tunnel will include bike lanes and sidewalks. Nearby intersections will also be upgraded.

[Spoonsy]

Originally Posted by BanjoUnchained

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...ears-1.7610537

All the buses that serve Terry Fox Station do so via Kanata Ave (via Lord Byng Way) because there's no good routing out the west exit of the station via Roland Michener, the stretch near Harvey's/Montana's is one way and the road next to Kelseys is a fairly narrow (for a bus at least) unnamed private drive

If you want a bus heading south down Terry Fox from Kanata Station you have to route it back to Lord Byng/Kanata/Katimavik/Terry Fox or Lord Byng/Kanata/Hazeldean/Terry Fox

If you want to route a bus north up Terry Fox from Kanata Station you have to route it Lord Byng/Kanata/Campeau/Terry Fox

Plus the Kanata Ave 417 access is only an Eastbound On-Ramp or Westbound Off-Ramp

If they do this tunnel it opens up some streamlined routing possibilities for OC to/from Terry Fox + some improved 417 access given Terry Fox interchange has 4 ramps

Not smart enough to opine on whether the juice is worth the squeeze but pretty sure that's the OC argument. Not likely to make a huge difference in private vehicle movement

edit: there are no sidewalks on Didsbury/Roland Michener/Herlihey so it also really sucks if you get off the bus at Terry Fox Stn and have to shop or work at Canadian Tire for example