Roads/Bridges projects/issues

[CityTech]

The Kettle Island bridge makes sense.

The talk about a new bridge in the west is interesting, because there's really nowhere one could be built.

The Deschenes Rapids has residential neighbourhoods and parks on both sides, so aside from NIMBYs there's no easy road approaches. One a little further east of there connecting Lucerne with the SJAM would be possible as the riverbanks are empty on both sides but that's close enough to Champlain that there's not much point.

West of Deschenes rapids, there's continuous development along the northern riverfront (first urban, then rural cottage-like) going pretty far west; west of there, the first "clear" spot would be a crossing that would connect to near Dunrobin on the Ontario side; this is so far west that there's also no point. Even if we were willing to expropriate extensive riverfront houses in Aylmer, there's still low density residential neighbourhoods blocking the way from there to the 148 highway.

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by daud

I love the alexandria bridge exactly as it is as the photos in this old post show:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showpost.php?p=6592794&postcount=110

I would personally like to see any refurbishment to retain as much of the style and character of the current bridge.

I agree that it is a beautiful bridge. Unfortunately, when it gets to the point where the cost to repair it exceeds the cost to replace it, tough decisions need to be made. Given that it doesn't meet Ottawa-Gatineau's current or future needs, this situation provides an opportunity to replace it with something better. My preference would be to choose a design that plays homage to the original design, rather than going with something completely different.

[Aylmer]

Originally Posted by acottawa

Isn’t that true of any transportation infrastructure?

That's quite right. So with that in mind, the real question we have to be asking ourselves is what kind of city do we want, what kind of patterns of development will help us get there, and what kinds of infrastructure will facilitate those patterns.

If we want a compact, lively city, then we should be building infrastructure which is likely to create lively, compact places. Or at the very least, we should be weary of those projects which generate more car dependant patterns. This is why I'm very weary of the bridge.

[MountainView]

Straight from the 2019 Budget:

Improving Crossings in Canada’s Capital Region
Interprovincial bridge crossings serve as important links between the cities of
Ottawa, Ontario, and Gatineau, Quebec—helping people get back and forth
to work, serving as a key transportation route and providing access to both cities for tourists and locals travelling by car, by bicycle or on foot. The five
interprovincial crossings carry close to 150,000 vehicles and 9,000 pedestrians and cyclists each day, an increase of over 15,000 since 2015 alone. These bridges are aging, with the newest bridge having been opened in 1973, and were built in an era when the National Capital Region had a much smaller population, fewer interprovincial commuters and far less congestion due to truck traffic.

To ensure that these interprovincial crossings remain safe and open for
residents and visitors, Budget 2019 proposes to:
• Replace the Alexandra bridge as it is now more than 100 years old and needs to be replaced. The new Alexandra Bridge will provide long-lasting economic benefits to the communities on each side of the Ottawa River and more broadly to the region as a whole.

• Address the demonstrated need for an additional National Capital Region crossing by refreshing existing studies and developing a long-term integrated interprovincial crossing plan led by the National Capital Commission with both provincial governments and the cities of Gatineau and Ottawa.

• Support the rehabilitation and ongoing maintenance of National Capital
Region crossings, including the Chaudière and MacDonald-Cartier bridges by
providing up to $80.4 million over 10 years.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by Aylmer

That's quite right. So with that in mind, the real question we have to be asking ourselves is what kind of city do we want, what kind of patterns of development will help us get there, and what kinds of infrastructure will facilitate those patterns.

If we want a compact, lively city, then we should be building infrastructure which is likely to create lively, compact places. Or at the very least, we should be weary of those projects which generate more car dependant patterns. This is why I'm very weary of the bridge.

I am not opposed to compact lively cities, but the current policy of underproviding bridges does not seem to have led to such an outcome.

[acottawa]

So Kettle Island is back on the table?

[Aylmer]

Originally Posted by acottawa

I am not opposed to compact lively cities, but the current policy of underproviding bridges does not seem to have led to such an outcome.

For a number of reasons. But the construction of new orbital highways (especially at a time when interprovincial traffic is not increasing) will not just be ineffective, it would be actively detrimental.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by Aylmer

For a number of reasons. But the construction of new orbital highways (especially at a time when interprovincial traffic is not increasing) will not just be ineffective, it would be actively detrimental.

It isn’t really an orbital highway, it is a new bridge that connects existing highways.

The principal thing a new bridge does is remove the current policy of running 100% of the interprovincial through central parts of Ottawa and Gatineau, a policy which directly impedes a compact and liveable city.

[Aylmer]

Orbital as opposed to radial. It's not a ring road, but it's meant to facilitate suburb-to-suburb trips.

If a new bridge came at the same time as we eliminated road space downtown, then perhaps. But as it is, I don't think that anyone is proposing that. Indeed, I strongly suspect that the (mercifully few) elected officials who are so keen to advance the idea that the new bridge would free downtown from the shackles of vehicular traffic would be the first to decry any attempt at reducing the space allocated to roads downtown.

But again I repeat - interprovincial traffic is a shrinking problem, not a growing problem. There are already fewer cars having to run through downtown to cross a bridge because there are fewer people crossing bridges.

[Marshsparrow]

We'll have interprovincial and bridge debates on speed with this announcement... just great. I have zero confidence that this will result in something nice or practical and be just a ho hum bridge design like Macdonald-Cartier and Portage.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by Aylmer

But again I repeat - interprovincial traffic is a shrinking problem, not a growing problem. There are already fewer cars having to run through downtown to cross a bridge because there are fewer people crossing bridges.

A slight decrease between 14 years ago and 8 years ago is not evidence that interprovincial traffic is a shrinking problem.

[Aylmer]

It's the best evidence we have until a new ODS comes out. If anything, it's an indication that interprovincial traffic does not necessarily run in lockstep with growth of overall traffic volumes. As such, its growth is not the inevitable and irresistible force of nature that some make it out to be.

[CityTech]

The federal government has within its power the ability to reduce interprovincial traffic volumes quite a bit.. by simply letting federal workers work in their province of residence. Rearrange the government so every department has an office in each province and post people at workplaces within the province they live in, so federal workers don't have to commute across the river anymore. Boom. No need for more bridges.

[rocketphish]

Federal budget 2019: Ottawa-Gatineau bridge battle revived as budget renews controversial project

Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Updated: March 19, 2019



What Ottawa residents need to know, at a glance:

• The National Capital Commission will reactivate an interprovincial bridge study
• More low-rate financing will be available to spur the development industry to build residential rental units
• Municipalities can access $2.2 billion more in gas tax transfer revenue as a one-time top up, helping fix or expand infrastructure
• The federal government is challenging municipalities to come up with ways to speed up affordable housing construction
• There could be an opportunity to grow rural tourism through a new Canadian Experiences Fund

A national capital bridge battle has been revived by the Liberal government, to the chagrin of mayors on both sides of the Ottawa River.

Tuesday’s federal budget proposes to kick-start the process to create a new interprovincial bridge, threatening to reopen old wounds from the last time the federal government, two provincial governments and two municipal governments tried to find a location to build a new crossing between Ottawa and Gatineau.

And if the National Capital Commission didn’t have enough on its plate with the redevelopment of LeBreton Flats, the federal government has tapped the agency to take the project’s lead “by refreshing existing studies and developing a long-term integrated interprovincial crossing plan.”

Both Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson and Gatineau Mayor Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin said they were surprised by the mention of an interprovincial bridge in the federal budget.

Watson said he has “no desire” to go down the road of another fight over where to put a crossing — a proposal to locate a Gatineau-connecting bridge over Kettle Island in east Ottawa was shelved almost six years ago after community uproar.

“I think the top-down approach failed a few years ago. We have to try another approach,” said Pedneaud-Jobin.

He disagreed with the budget’s assertion that there is a “demonstrated need for an additional National Capital Region crossing,” and said both Ottawa and Gatineau are instead focused on investment in their public transportation infrastructure, including interprovincial links between light rail transit systems in both cities.

“I think that should be the priority, not starting a process about a future bridge,” said Pedneaud-Jobin.

There might be immediate pressure to build another crossing, however.

The federal government says it will replace the aging Alexandra Bridge, potentially knocking out a key crossing for a significant period. However, the budget is silent on when the Alexandra Bridge replacement would happen, or if it would happen after a new crossing is built.

The NCC and the Ontario and Quebec governments started a project to build a new interprovincial bridge back in 2006, with the cities of Ottawa and Gatineau providing support.

A new Ottawa River bridge in the east end over Kettle Island, connecting Ottawa’s Aviation Parkway with Gatineau’s Montée Paiement, was the preferred location for a new $1-billion crossing.

Ottawa residents who lived around the proposed bridge corridor were worried about the impact of highway-type traffic cutting through their communities.

Just months before the end of the NCC-led bridge study, and after gauging the drama in those east Ottawa communities, the former Ontario Liberal government in June 2013 said it wouldn’t support a crossing at Kettle Island.

All the work from the study was shelved and the City of Ottawa started looking at other ways to divert trucks from downtown and specifically from the King Edward Avenue truck route.

Truck traffic in downtown Ottawa is a major part of the interprovincial bridge saga. The hope was that a new bridge would drastically reduce the number of trucks downtown, making the current truck route on Nicholas Street and King Edward Avenue much safer for pedestrians, cyclists and other motorists.

The city, with the province’s financial support, commissioned a feasibility study on building a tunnel from Highway 417, through Sandy Hill and Lowertown, to the mouth of the Macdonald-Cartier Bridge. The study established that building a tunnel is possible, and would cost as much as $2 billion, but an environmental assessment has never started.

It was never clear which government would pay for an Ottawa traffic tunnel. The city’s transportation priority is rapid rail transit and the upper levels of government together have committed more than $2 billion for the Stage 2 O-Train expansion project.

With the federal government now indicating it wants to get moving on a new interprovincial bridge, a traffic tunnel could be out of the picture.

At the same time, restarting the interprovincial bridge project raises the possibility that communities could once again be pitted against each other, with downtown residents calling for a solution to having big rigs rumble through the core and east-end residents rallying against a truck-diverting bridge near their neighbourhoods.

The federal budget doesn’t say if the interprovincial bridge process will scout other locations for a new crossing, other than the three east-Ottawa corridors that were shortlisted in the original study.

There is a growing need to provide more transportation access across the Ottawa River in the National Capital Region.

The five interprovincial crossings together carry 150,000 vehicles, plus 9,000 pedestrians and cyclists, each day. According to the federal government, that number has increased by 15,000 since 2015. Of all the morning peak-period traffic in the region, about 11 per cent of it is interprovincial.

Pedneaud-Jobin argued that a new crossing for drivers between Ottawa and Gatineau is not the answer to this growth in traffic. “We need a heavier transportation mode as soon as possible, so the answer is that project connecting to the LRT.”

Last June, Gatineau unveiled a $2.1-billion, 26-kilometre light rail plan to service its expanding west-end population. Connections across the Alexandra and Prince of Wales bridges to Ottawa’s LRT were planned .

At the time, Pedneaud-Jobin called the exact locations of the crossings a “delicate” point, but said these two bridges “are extremely interesting” from Gatineau’s point of view, giving access to the Rideau Centre and to the Bayview station and Tunney’s Pasture.

In light of the federal budget announcement, Pedneaud-Jobin said he’s planning a discussion with the NCC. “I’m quite convinced that Mr. Watson and I will have the same language on this issue. We have priorities, very clear priorities, and they have to be fulfilled before we start any other process.”

The federal budget also earmarked $80.4 million over 10 years to repair other interprovincial crossings in Ottawa-Gatineau, including the Chaudière and Macdonald Cartier bridges.

With files from Taylor Blewett

[email protected]
twitter.com/JonathanWilling

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...d-as-budget-renews-controversial-project

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by CityTech

The federal government has within its power the ability to reduce interprovincial traffic volumes quite a bit.. by simply letting federal workers work in their province of residence. Rearrange the government so every department has an office in each province and post people at workplaces within the province they live in, so federal workers don't have to commute across the river anymore. Boom. No need for more bridges.

Then people wouldn’t be working with their colleagues.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by Aylmer

It's the best evidence we have until a new ODS comes out. If anything, it's an indication that interprovincial traffic does not necessarily run in lockstep with growth of overall traffic volumes. As such, its growth is not the inevitable and irresistible force of nature that some make it out to be.

I live in Ottawa and work in Gatineau. I have a pretty easy commute, but the lines going the other way can stretch for kilometres. Maybe the lines are a few metres shorter than they were in 2005, but there is clearly a problem.

[Mikeed]

I know some people don't like the Alexandra Bridge, but it is a magnificent bridge and a really important part of our built heritage.

I will mourn its demise probably till the day I die.

I don't understand why the Alexandra Bridge can't be refurbished.

The CPR Trestle in Parry Sound and the High-Level Bridge in Lethbridge are both over a hundred years old and have no structural issues.

[J.OT13]

I don't know enough about those bridges to really get into it, but the Alexandra has been heavily used for its entire lifespan and has been witness to severe weather and earthquakes over the years. A bridge that has lasted 118+ years is quite an achievement. Compare that to the Champlain Bridge in Montreal; opened in 1962 and now months away from demolition following the opening of its replacement.

[Gat-Train]

Originally Posted by Aylmer

But again I repeat - interprovincial traffic is a shrinking problem, not a growing problem. There are already fewer cars having to run through downtown to cross a bridge because there are fewer people crossing bridges.

Just because it's decreasing, doesn't mean it's not a problem. A downward trend on interprovincial trips doesn't change the fact of hundreds of trucks rumbling through the Byward market everyday.

[Admiral Nelson]

Originally Posted by Mikeed

I know some people don't like the Alexandra Bridge, but it is a magnificent bridge and a really important part of our built heritage.

I agree. It's a landmark exactly the way it is. It's especially lovely viewed from the top of the locks.

I hope it's not replaced with a lacklustre design, would be a big shame...