Plans to widen highway 174 anger residents
Build ring road, Cumberland residents tell city
By Laura Mueller, Orleans News
Feb 04, 2015
A number of Cumberland residents mounted vocal opposition to a plan to widen highway 174, but Coun. Stephen Blais believes it’s the only way to make the road safer and improve the section through the village.
City staff presented preliminary plans to widen the 174 to four lanes east of Trim Road at a meeting held Feb. 3 at the R.J. Kennedy Memorial Community Centre. The work isn’t scheduled to be done until sometime after 2031, but the plans are being drawn up now in conjunction with the highway’s widening to the west, which will include the extension of the Confederation light-rail line from Blair Station to Place D’Orleans.
The plans didn’t sit well with several vocal residents at the meeting, some of whom live along the road that would be widened.
Willard McWilliams, who owns a property on the 174 – formerly a provincial highway and now a city road – said he’d “fight like hell” if the city tried to expropriate part of his land to add lanes to the road.
“They’re in for a real scolding at least,” he said.
Other residents were more combative with their criticism, shouting questions at staff about why they weren’t considering a “ring road” that would loop south through less developed areas. The road-widening study is being conducted jointly with the region of Clarence-Rockland, and many Cumberland residents who attended the meeting believed the wider road would run through their village in order to ease the commute for residents from the municipality to the east.
Blais reminded the crowd that the provincial government cancelled an initiative to build a ring road in 2013.
Two other road options were considered as part of the current study, said Valerie McGirr, a consultant from AECOM who is working on the project.
* One option would run almost diagonal from Trim Road south of Wilhaven Drive to connect to Baseline Road.
* Another route would extend Innes Road to connect to Baseline Road, with two different connection options at Brian Cobourn Boulevard.
Adding another lane in each direction on the 174 would best address transportation needs, McGirr said. After analyzing the options 17 different ways, 11 of those tests concluded that widening the 174 was the best option.
While it would be the most expensive solution, expanding the 174 is the only option that would not require the removal of homes or businesses. The option south of Wilhaven would require the expropriation and removal of 11 homes and 10 non-residential buildings, while the Innes-Baseline routes would require removal of two homes and one non-residential building.
More properties – a total of 169 – would be impacted by the 174 widening option, but the impact would be less, said Angela Taylor, the city’s project manager. The plan would require the expropriation of sections of private properties along the route, but only a few metres of each property’s frontage would be needed, Taylor said.
Residents at the meeting scoffed at that, with some saying, “So the road will come right up to our houses and that’s fine?”
Taylor said it’s too early in the study to determine how many metres of each property would need to be expropriated.
A more detailed plan will be presented at another open house this spring, Taylor said. The entire study could wrap up and be brought to city council for a vote by the end of 2015, she said, but the timeline hasn’t been finalized.
People who live on the north side of the 174 would not be able to turn left out of their driveways after the road is widened; they would need to head westbound and make a U-turn at the nearest intersection or roundabout, McGirr said.
A number of roundabouts – as many as seven – could become part of the plan as the study moves forward, Blais said. A roundabout at Cameron Street is very likely, and would serve to keep up the flow of traffic while at the same time, slowing it down, Blais said. Signalized intersections will also be considered.
Widening the road would also allow for other improvements villagers have been asking for, such as measures to slow the speed, gateway signs, landscaping and possible pedestrian and cycling pathways, Blais said.
Facing opposition from residents, Blais, who has campaigned in favour of the road widening project, told the crowd, “So you want to go to heaven, but you don’t want to die?”
The federal and provincial governments have each committed $40 million towards the project, Blais said, but the total price tag will likely be closer to $400 million, so additional funding would eventually be needed.
http://www.ottawacommunitynews.com/news-story/5322357-plans-to-widen-highway-174-anger-residents/
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