Innes-Walkley-Hunt Club Connector | Phase 1 (Hunt Club to 417 Extension) Proposed

[MaxHeadroom]

Concrete columns poured in the median.
Now building the base of the berms for each side of the big overpass over the 417. This is going to be a LONG structure!
HydroOne has a couple of construction tracked vehicles on site for the last week.
Move moving of dirt around. The east embankment is slowly getting larger day by day.

[eternallyme]

Not in the same area but same corridor, any idea on how plans for upgrades in the Hunt Club Bridge area are going, or has that begun yet? I know widening is planned...

[Davis137]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

Just remember the Sawmill Creek bike pathway. Part of it got built during the infrastructure program. It will probably be 2030 before the remainder gets built. Of course, it is of almost no value until the missing link gets finished. In the meantime, we have a beautiful paved bike trail that abruptly ends in shrubbery under the Walkley Road bridge. Your city in action.

So that's what that path is! If they had it finished from Walkley as far as Heron or all the way over to Riverside, I'd be taking my bike to work. I went looking not too long ago to see where the path from huntclub goes, and you're right...it ends under the Walkley bridge. There seems to be no direct path to downtown from southgate/greenboro for pedestrians or cyclists...as far as I know.

[TransitZilla]

Originally Posted by Davis137

So that's what that path is! If they had it finished from Walkley as far as Heron or all the way over to Riverside, I'd be taking my bike to work. I went looking not too long ago to see where the path from huntclub goes, and you're right...it ends under the Walkley bridge. There seems to be no direct path to downtown from southgate/greenboro for pedestrians or cyclists...as far as I know.

The path is supposed to be extended from Walkley to Brookfield within the next couple of years; see http://www.ottawa.ca/en/city_hall/planningprojectsreports/construction/onthemove/cycling/index.html. Basically you would come out by the Brookfield roundabout.

For people in the Greeboro area, the best cycling route downtown is probably along the Alta Vista corridor path; for example: http://maps.google.ca/maps?saddr=conroy+...dirflg=b&mra=mrv&via=1,2,3&z=13&lci=bike

[Cre47]

Originally Posted by MaxHeadroom

Concrete columns poured in the median.
Now building the base of the berms for each side of the big overpass over the 417. This is going to be a LONG structure!
HydroOne has a couple of construction tracked vehicles on site for the last week.
Move moving of dirt around. The east embankment is slowly getting larger day by day.

Indeed, seeing it in person, that is going to be an impressive interchange

[MaxHeadroom]

Noticed today that Hydro One is finally beginning to erect one of the new pylons to relocate the overhead wires.

Twin bridges for the 417WB ramps over the creek are now up.

[MaxHeadroom]

Construction update: the four new hydro towers are up. Getting ready to run new wires. It's now obvious that any work on the southwest side of the EB lanes is being impeded by the current wood hydro towers.

The EB on ramp has been well graded and now has a slot for a short bridge over the creek.

Rebar has gone in for a second set of main overpass columns on the south side of the EB lanes.

It's painfully slow watching this construction poke along every single day. I sure hope they expedite opening the EB ramps to relieve the atrocious congestion at the Walkley exit. There aren't a lot of workers on site whenever I've driven by.

[waterloowarrior]

[Davis137]

Sweet...should see the construction crews working on getting things in place for all of the footings and pillars for the bridge in the not too distant future...

[MaxHeadroom]

Originally Posted by Davis137

Sweet...should see the construction crews working on getting things in place for all of the footings and pillars for the bridge in the not too distant future...

For the main overpass structure, one set of pillars in the median are completed, the other set to the south of the EB lanes is under construction, and should be completed within another month.

The hydro lines have been relocated about 10 days ago, and the old wood hydro towers are coming down to make way for the rest of the works.

[MaxHeadroom]

This project has taken a turn for the worse. The earthfill embankment for the east end of the overpass going over the 417 (the black one you can see in the left of the picture in post 41 by Waterloowarrior) has been completely demolished and now piles are being driven into the ground in it's place. Must have been a problem with soil compaction and settling. The same thing occurred today on the short overpass over a creek for the eastbound on ramp from Hunt Club.

[Luker]

Brutal. Talk about incompetent planning. So typical Ottawa.

Who do you think is responsible for this and who would be the party footing the bill? City? Contractor? Sub-contractors?

[Dado]

Originally Posted by Luker

Brutal. Talk about incompetent planning. So typical Ottawa.

Who do you think is responsible for this and who would be the party footing the bill? City? Contractor? Sub-contractors?

Extremely unlikely to be the sub-contractors. They're just working to someone else's specifications. The same is likely true of the contractor as well, unless they somehow missed the bit about driving in piles first - which seems highly unlikely. Not impossible, but highly unlikely.

Given that the problem is insufficient soil bearing capacity, that's something the City should have been aware of before letting out the contract. Since the City never does anything much itself but rather contracts out its engineering as well, it would fall to the City's engineering consultants and the geotechnical sub-consultants to determine the soil bearing capacity and decide on the requirement for piles and it would be up to the City's specification-writers to ensure that such a requirement was in the contract that was put out for tender.

So the answer is that the City is probably footing the bill, but they may be able to pass it along to their engineering consultants and/or geotechnical subconsultants and whatever insurance they have depending on where the fault lies.

[MaxHeadroom]

Now they are tearing down the east embankment. What a disaster. I can't imagine they did this on purpose.

[rocketphish]

Originally Posted by MaxHeadroom

Now they are tearing down the east embankment. What a disaster. I can't imagine they did this on purpose.

Might they just be preloading the site before constructing the overpass approaches to avoid post-construction settling issues that can occur when building heavy structures on softer soils?

[eltodesukane]

Anything new? When is the overpass supposed to be ready?

[MaxHeadroom]

Project signs in the area say the interchange will be completed in Fall 2014. At the glacial pace at which things have been going, that sounds pretty accurate.

They are now building a proper foundation at the east end of the future 417 overpass where the earth filled works used to be.

[MaxHeadroom]

Yesterday the steel spans for the main overpass started to go up. Same style as the Cyrville Rd overpass.

[NOWINYOW]

I really wish the city would give this interchange a much higher priority and just get it done. It's being built with borrowed money. What's the difference if we borrow it now or borrow it later? (Later, the interest rates may be higher)

It's a moot point about where the funding is coming from. The municipal, the provincial and the federal funds are all borrowed money.

[1overcosc]

Looks like the steel span is completely done now.