Roads/Bridges projects/issues

[MountainView]

Originally Posted by JM1

So, you want to resurrect the Champlain expressway in a different location?

While I like your concept, it presupposes a lot of extra funding. I would rather that we first spend money on a nicholas street to MacDonald Cartier tunnel or a nicholas street to riverside bridge or tunnel. By the way, the latter option could allow airport pkwy to be re routed up riverside to nicholas.

Isn't this already a plan along with the Alta Vista corridor? If it isn't, it should be! A bridge connecting Riverside Dr to Nicolas would be ideal and used by many. It would also reroute a lot of traffic in that area because there would be an alternative to cross the Rideau.
Traffic heading North on the Airport Parkway could use Riverside & Nicolas to get downtown and would probably be faster than the current Bronson routing. Although heading South to the airport would be difficult because there is currently no access to Bronson/Airport Parkway from Riverside. You'd have to take Brookfield to go south on Airport Pkwy. I'm sure a slight modification ramps near 1500 Bronson would be possible to allow for Riverside West traffic to access Bronson South.

[c_speed3108]

NCC is proposing a traffic light at Queen Elizabeth and Fifth to help walkers and cyclists get to the Canal.

In the most overdone proposal ever, there is even a rendering in case you can't quite picture what a traffic light might look like:

https://twitter.com/PringleJosh/stat...166017/photo/1

[Mulder]

Originally Posted by eternallyme

Regarding the Airport Parkway and Lester Road, that is a real challenge. The big problem, IMO, is solving the upstream issue. Bronson Avenue cannot be widened, and a narrowing would be desirable (but impossible in the current situation). That means the solution is separating the Airport Parkway from Bronson Avenue. My recommendation:

Expensive! While I'm still somewhat new to Ottawa. This plan would require a large amount of money. Considering they are already planning on improving the Bronson off-ramp & removing the building straight across. Connecting straight to Chamberlain.

Originally Posted by eternallyme

* Reconstruct Booth Street and Rochester Street as a one-way couplet, with 2 lanes on each north of Raymond and 4 lanes on each south. As a business area, the residential impact would be lower.

* To prevent cut-through traffic in residential areas, Booth Street would be discontinuous to all traffic except for cyclists and pedestrians at Albert Street (access closed off).

* Remove the 417 ramps at Bronson and shift them to Booth and Rochester, using Orangeville Street and Raymond Street as accesses.

All this does is shift existing traffic to those streets.

Originally Posted by eternallyme

* South of Carling Avenue, a vehicular tunnel with 6 lanes (3 in each bore) beneath Dow's Lake would connect Booth/Rochester to the Airport Parkway (now Bronson Avenue) north of Sunnyside Avenue. Trucks would be prohibited, as they are now on the Airport Parkway.

Any tunnel would likely have to start before Carling Ave, as I believe that's all NCC land to the south. You are also talking about a tunnel with a diameter of around 15m min Probably even largest for 3 lanes. (To compare, Seattle's Viaduct Tunnel is 2 lanes each direction stacked, TBM is 17.5m diameter.)

With this proposed tunnel to be likely half the length of Seattle's (approximate) Just taking half that cost and it's $2.1 billion. Money not well spent since they could probably expropriate all properties between the canal & Gladstone, and build a better road and interchange.

Originally Posted by eternallyme

* An interchange (most likely a diamond or SPUI) would be built at Sunnyside Avenue, and the pedestrian crossing to the south would become an overpass. In general, the design would be a wide urban boulevard from the 417 to Carling and a freeway south of Carling.

* Once that is done, then twin the Airport Parkway.

The thing is twinning Airport Parkway can be done currently with really minimal impacts to what's going on at Bronson, especially southbound. Everyone who takes it currently is still going to take it. It just makes it a faster/smoother commute between Heron & Lester. A proper traffic study would be needed for the Northbound, but I suspect it's no different. There will be slow downs during rush hour. Mostly relating to either congestion of bus stops.

My 10 year suggestion would be for the City to grab property on either side of the road when there is redevelopment to improve bus bays and turning lanes.

Modifications to the Bronson off-ramp a including a fly over connecting straight to Chamberlain Ave. Make the existing location off-ramp a right-only, & after the proposed fly-over to Chamberlain Ave another off-ramp for Northbound Traffic. This at least moves traffic lights further apart & creates safer movements.

[rocketphish]

Fifth Avenue traffic light offers safe passage to canal paths

By Don Butler, Ottawa Citizen May 6, 2014 5:32 PM

Plans were unveiled at an open house Tuesday that should make it possible to cross the Queen Elizabeth Driveway at Fifth Avenue this summer without taking your life in your hands.

THE PROBLEM

Heavy traffic makes it difficult for cyclists and pedestrians using the paths along the Rideau Canal to safely cross the Driveway.

THE SOLUTION

A traffic light that pedestrians and cyclists can activate. As well, the Driveway will be narrowed at Fifth Avenue to slow traffic and make it easier for pedestrians to cross.

WHAT’S SPECIAL

The intersection will feature a “cross-ride” — a crossing dedicated for bike path cyclists with its own signal, similar to one on Bronson Avenue at Brewer’s Park. Pedestrians and cyclists travelling along Fifth Avenue will cross on the other side of the intersection.

TIMETABLE

Work will begin within a few weeks and will be completed this summer. During construction, the Driveway will be narrowed to a single lane at Fifth Avenue.

WHAT’S NEXT

The work is part of a National Capital Commission project, in partnership with the City of Ottawa, to make it easier and safer for pedestrians and cyclists to cross the Driveway and Colonel By Drive. Last year, a pedestrian “refuge island” was installed on Colonel By at the Hartwell Locks, and crossings are in the works at Colonel By and Clegg Street and the Driveway at Commissioner’s Park.

THE QUOTE

“It’s always been about the vehicle, but now we’re finding more and more discussions are about cyclists and pedestrians and safe crossings.” -- Greg Kehoe, NCC project manager

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/ot...956/story.html

[phil235]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

Fifth Avenue traffic light offers safe passage to canal paths

By Don Butler, Ottawa Citizen May 6, 2014 5:32 PM

Plans were unveiled at an open house Tuesday that should make it possible to cross the Queen Elizabeth Driveway at Fifth Avenue this summer without taking your life in your hands.

THE PROBLEM

Heavy traffic makes it difficult for cyclists and pedestrians using the paths along the Rideau Canal to safely cross the Driveway.

THE SOLUTION

A traffic light that pedestrians and cyclists can activate. As well, the Driveway will be narrowed at Fifth Avenue to slow traffic and make it easier for pedestrians to cross.

WHAT’S SPECIAL

The intersection will feature a “cross-ride” — a crossing dedicated for bike path cyclists with its own signal, similar to one on Bronson Avenue at Brewer’s Park. Pedestrians and cyclists travelling along Fifth Avenue will cross on the other side of the intersection.

TIMETABLE

Work will begin within a few weeks and will be completed this summer. During construction, the Driveway will be narrowed to a single lane at Fifth Avenue.

WHAT’S NEXT

The work is part of a National Capital Commission project, in partnership with the City of Ottawa, to make it easier and safer for pedestrians and cyclists to cross the Driveway and Colonel By Drive. Last year, a pedestrian “refuge island” was installed on Colonel By at the Hartwell Locks, and crossings are in the works at Colonel By and Clegg Street and the Driveway at Commissioner’s Park.

THE QUOTE

“It’s always been about the vehicle, but now we’re finding more and more discussions are about cyclists and pedestrians and safe crossings.” -- Greg Kehoe, NCC project manager

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/ot...956/story.html

Just throw in a pedestrian bridge and I think they are on to something.

[TransitZilla]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

[B]Fifth Avenue traffic light offers safe passage to canal paths

This is great, but will there also be a traffic signal adjacent to Lansdowne so folks can cross there?

[eternallyme]

About the Bronson plans, my thinking was to simply get the traffic off that residential street and out of the residential area, a major complaint in the Glebe (and my thought indeed does that without impacting the city as a whole). Booth and Rochester, south of Highway 417, are not residential - they run through a business area which would be more suited for high traffic volumes. As urban roadways, I felt that running it to Carling would at least maintain local access.

An alternative would be to run it in the greenspace adjacent to Queen Elizabeth Drive before rising onto a viaduct, but that would get enormous opposition from the NCC.

Also noticed that Bank Street north of Riverdale Avenue had its speed limit reduced to 40 km/h.

[hwy418]

Originally Posted by Mulder

Modifications to the Bronson off-ramp a including a fly over connecting straight to Chamberlain Ave. Make the existing location off-ramp a right-only, & after the proposed fly-over to Chamberlain Ave another off-ramp for Northbound Traffic. This at least moves traffic lights further apart & creates safer movements.

The Bronson EB off-ramp intersection will have a direct connection to Chamberlain to avoid the current jug handle on Bronson, but no flyover. The design is in fact completed and will likely go to construction in the next couple of years to coincide with the City's Bronson reconstruction south of Catherine Street. Look for the old OBE building to be demolished at the ramp this year (the tall antenna on its roof has already been removed).

[phil235]

Originally Posted by bradnixon

This is great, but will there also be a traffic signal adjacent to Lansdowne so folks can cross there?

Baby steps. Baby steps.

[lrt's friend]

Councillors on the transportation committee are green lighting the first step in the process of widening the Airport Parkway.

An environmental assessment is required for infrastructure projects such as this one, and the study will take two years to complete once the contract is awarded.

The city plans to widen the road in phases, with the stretch between Brookfield Road and Hunt Club Road first on the list to be completed no later than 2019.

Other sections would be widened a few years later.

The city is also studying extending the O-Train from Greenboro to Riverside South.

http://www.cfra.com/news/2014/05/07/...rkway-widening

Contrary to prior belief, the plan to expand the Airport Parkway will include the Brookfield to Hunt Club section and this will be done first. This only makes sense given that widening further south would create a bottleneck.

Unfortunately, this is another example of extra money being spent because we failed to extend the O-Train in 2006-2009.

[eltodesukane]

I learned that the (future) Coventry Pedestrian Bridge will be covered. Good!
I wonder why the (future?) South Keys Airport Parkway pedestrian bridge will not be covered...

[NOWINYOW]

Originally Posted by eltodesukane

I learned that the (future) Coventry Pedestrian Bridge will be covered. Good!
I wonder why the (future?) South Keys Airport Parkway pedestrian bridge will not be covered...

Covering a pedestrian bridge is not really a good idea...most of the time.

First of all, the rest of the sidewalks/path isn't covered. Next, covered areas, especially in less-travelled routes, leads to people "hanging out" in protected shelters..

[Cre47]

Just amazing how the closure of one lane in Gatineau would have such a huge impact on traffic and that deep into Ottawa. I see Vanier Parkway/Riverside jammed to Smyth, Beechwood all the way to St-Laurent, Bank Street jammed all the way to the Glebe and the 417 even affected up to St-Laurent

[JCL]

Originally Posted by Cre47

Just amazing how the closure of one lane in Gatineau would have such a huge impact on traffic and that deep into Ottawa. I see Vanier Parkway/Riverside jammed to Smyth, Beechwood all the way to St-Laurent, Bank Street jammed all the way to the Glebe and the 417 even affected up to St-Laurent

OC Transpo tweeted out that there was an emergency repair on Hwy 50. Do you know where on Hwy 50 (https://twitter.com/oc_transpo/statu...74052222697472). Would you happen to know where on Hwy 50 this was?

No mention by media on this.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by JCL

OC Transpo tweeted out that there was an emergency repair on Hwy 50. Do you know where on Hwy 50 (https://twitter.com/oc_transpo/statu...74052222697472). Would you happen to know where on Hwy 50 this was?

No mention by media on this.

The French-language media have been covering it extensively this morning.

It was a problem with an expansion joint on the A-50 eastbound on the bridge over the Gatineau River (Pont des Draveurs). It was noticed by the MTQ's inspector on Sunday night and the left lane of the bridge has been closed as a precautionary measure since then.

I have not heard of how long the closure will last.

[JCL]

Originally Posted by Acajack

The French-language media have been covering it extensively this morning.

It was a problem with an expansion joint on the A-50 eastbound on the bridge over the Gatineau River (Pont des Draveurs). It was noticed by the MTQ's inspector on Sunday night and the left lane of the bridge has been closed as a precautionary measure since then.

I have not heard of how long the closure will last.

Thanks. I don't follow French media as I don't speak French. Would it be safe to say that a repeat may happen this afternoon?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by JCL

Thanks. I don't follow French media as I don't speak French. Would it be safe to say that a repeat may happen this afternoon?

I think they don't know how long it will take at this point. So for this afternoon... definitely problematic again. And likely for the rest of the week.

[JCL]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I think they don't know how long it will take at this point. So for this afternoon... definitely problematic again. And likely for the rest of the week.

Thanks!

Transit-wise, I guess we will be seeing a number double decker buses on non-express routes in the Downtown core after the PM peak to cover trips that are late, like last night.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by JCL

Thanks!

Transit-wise, I guess we will be seeing a number double decker buses on non-express routes in the Downtown core after the PM peak to cover trips that are late, like last night.

I think there is supposed to be an MTQ press briefing in Gatineau sometime today.

[Acajack]

Alonzo Wright Bridge will be eastbound only this afternoon in both lanes to ease the crunch from the Pont des Draveurs. Not sure this will do much for you guys in Ottawa as this is some distance from the Ottawa River crossings.