Roads/Bridges projects/issues

[eemy]

My respect for Jan Harder and Steve Desroches just jumped through the roof. It takes guts to refuse funding that would benefit your constituents.

[Dado]

Originally Posted by bradnixon

BTW: The cost of the actual bridge is about $40M. I think the $105 million cost also includes the extension of Strandherd from Crestway to Price of Wales, and the widening of Earl Armstrong from River Road to Limebank, in addition to the actual bridge and its approaches.

$65M for a few kilometres of road building/widening? I don't think so. Where did the $40M number come from?

It's more likely that $40M is for a basic road bridge only, with $105M being the total cost of a road and transit bridge with some architectural interest along with changes to the road network.

[lrt's friend]

Let's invest a little bit of extra money to make the bridge architecturally attractive. Please, no more major bridges that are just slabs of concrete. Bridges are some of a city's most prominent monuments.

[Cre47]

I've forgot to post this, but the Citizen now is looking for the worst intersection in the city

http://communities.canada.com/ottawa...ersection.aspx

I would say any intersections that are a pain for transit buses, bikes and pedestrians.

Baseline at Woodroffe and Greenbank
Bank at Walkley
westbound Rideau at King Edward, Sussex and Elgin
eastbound Wellington from the Portage Bridge to Lyon
Hunt Club at Riverside and Prince of Wales
Most of Merivale Road between Clyde and Hunt Club
Most of Montreal Road from Montfort Hospital to Rideau
Knoxdale eastbound at Woodroffe
westbound Richmond at Baseline
And probably several more

[waterloowarrior]

anyone know how Highway 7 construction is looking?

[waterloowarrior]

Longfields Drive Extension
Woodroffe Avenue to Bill Leathem Drive
Notice of Project Commencement

In response to local traffic concerns resulting from the RCMP’s announcement that National Headquarters will be relocating to the South Merivale Business Park, the City of Ottawa has initiated the update to the detailed design for construction of a new access road from Woodroffe Avenue to Bill Leathem Drive. The proposed alignment will be an extension of Longfields Drive and passes through the southern farm sector of the National Capital Commission’s Greenbelt.
This project will involve the construction of:

• Two 3.5 metre traffic lanes with shoulders and flat bottom ditches;
• Two culverts at Barrhaven Creek and a tributary of Barrhaven Creek; and
• Intersection connections at Woodroffe Avenue and Bill Leathem Drive.

This project will also update the Schedule ‘B’ Class Environmental Assessment carried out in 2000 and will therefore include the filing of the ESR Update at the end of the project. As the project is located within the NCC’s Greenbelt, a federal environmental screening is also required.
We welcome your comments on the project, as they are an important part of the consultation process. With the exception of personal information, comments will become part of the public record.

[waterloowarrior]

Jockvale Road (Jock River to PoW) EA open house 1 display boards

[waterloowarrior]

A couple of fairly new highway expansion websites


Highway 7 Twinning - Ashton Road to McNeely Avenue




The tender for the highway 7 section "From 2.8 km west of County Road 17 Easterly to 12.7 km east of County Road 17 including adjacent Service Roads" is coming up soon



417 - Highway 7 to Eagleson Road

Description of the Undertaking
This Detail Design project involves the expansion of Highway 417 from Eagleson Road westerly to Highway 7, including the rehabilitation and widening of existing structures.
The main components of the project include:

• Widening of Highway 417 from Eagleson Road to Palladium Drive to provide 2 additional lanes in each direction (1 lane in each direction will be a High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane);
• Widening of Highway 417 from Palladium Drive to Highway 7 to provide 1 additional lane in each direction;
• Resurfacing/rehabilitation of existing lanes from Eagleson Road to Highway 7;
• Rehabilitation of the existing Carp River bridges (eastbound and westbound) and widening to provide 2 additional lanes per direction;
• Rehabilitation of the Eagleson Road Bridge and the Huntmar Road Bridge;
• Widening of the Carp Road Bridge at the north abutment to create three full lanes on the bridge;
• Reconstruction of the E-N/S and N/S-W ramps at the Carp Road interchange;
• Construction of an Advanced Traffic Management System from Highway 7 to Highway 416;
• Construction of related drainage works (culvert extensions, storm water management ponds etc.), and construction of highway related works (roadside protection);
• Highmast illumination and signage improvements;
• Removal and replacement of Highway 417 culvert located approximately 200 m west of Eagleson Road.

[Cre47]

Originally Posted by waterloowarrior

Jockvale Road (Jock River to PoW) EA open house 1 display boards

I hope, they would get rid of that awful curve and slope near the POW intersection

[Cre47]

From today's Sun http://www.ottawasun.com/News/Ottawa...83240-sun.html

But the city's future population growth estimates could change those rankings. The number of people who call Ottawa home is expected to increase as much as 30% beyond the current 800,000 residents and with little or no prospect for the addition of new arteries -- or even the expansion of those already in existence -- it's no stretch of the imagination to see the problem become unmanageable.

That's probably one of the most nonsense I've read lately. With little or no prospect of added new arteries? What a list, the 417 (underway with more in the next couple of years), Hwy 7 (underway), Limebank Road (underway), Woodroffe (underway), Strandherd (underway with more in a couple of years), Prince of Wales (in a couple of years), Jockvale (in a couple of years), Eagleson (probably this year), Hazeldean (in one year or so), Greenbank (in a year or so), Terry Fox (the northern extension), Merivale (in a couple of years) and more recently Longfields and eventually RR 174, the list of widening or extension projects is quite astonishing to say the least.

[adam-machiavelli]

That list is miniscule compared to what Sun readers want!

[p_xavier]

I'm starting to respect city council more and more, first they refuse to fund the Armstrong bridge, and now the freeway expansion.

Ken Gray . Highway 174: a widened waste
Ken Gray, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Friday, January 25, 2008
The proposed $104-million freeway to Rockland is in jeopardy. That's because the project, announced in Premier Dalton McGuinty's re-election campaign, is very low on Ottawa City Council's agenda.

And while the federal and provincial governments have agreed to fund building a widened stretch of Highway 174 east of Orléans in conjunction with the city, the municipality is responsible for the road, this having been downloaded during the Harris years.

The city commitment is $15 million, and Mayor Larry O'Brien wants to build the freeway (calling it "mandatory"), but Alta Vista Councillor Peter Hume believes council won't support the project.

"I don't think it is in our budget," Mr. Hume said in an interview. "I can think of a lot more pressing projects that we could use $15 million for."

Mr. Hume then produced an excerpt from city budget documents. It reads:

"The provincial government has announced funding support to widen Highway 174 from Trim Road to Rockland. ... Detailed cost estimates will need to be developed through an environmental assessment process required as part of the widening. The project has not been identified in the city's official plan. ... It is also not identified in the transportation master plan as the widening is not needed to serve the city's projected growth over the planning period to 2021."

Mr. Hume is concerned that the project is not part of the city's priorities, but it is being thrust upon it by the senior levels of government.

"I don't remember it being on a committee agenda. I'd be spending the money on public transit instead. I'd be surprised if we funded it. I'd be amazed."

"Support in the east end is lukewarm at best," Mr. Hume said. "It comes top down from government. I'm not sure there are 13 votes for this (the needed majority on council). It's jumping the queue."

Furthermore, Mr. Hume doubts that councillors in a cash-strapped municipality will want to drop their ward priorities for something thrust upon the city by the senior governments. He feels council's priorities must take precedence.

The position of council and staff, if Mr. Hume is reading the political winds correctly, has the makings of a standoff between the city on one side and the senior governments on the other.

Mr. McGuinty wants the freeway project to fulfil an election announcement. However, he is, as a liberal, on the wrong side of the issue. The taxpayer should not be shelling out $104 million for a freeway that will not move traffic faster (it will stall in the Highway 417-174 Split if not before). As well, the freeway will contribute to pollution and urban sprawl by giving commuters the misplaced impression that they can travel quickly downtown from places such as Rockland.

Meanwhile, a statement released by the premier's office this week makes it look as if the freeway (which extends into Glengarry-Prescott-Russell along County Road 17) is still a go, at least at Queen's Park:

"The provincial government is pleased to commit $40 million to the improvement of this important city and regional road. ... We are pleased the federal government is coming to the table and we look forward to our municipal partners joining with us on this important project as well."

As the statement says, the premier is not alone in supporting the freeway. Environment Minister John Baird and Conservative MPs Royal Galipeau and Pierre Lemieux have pledged federal money for the project. That the federal environment minister would say last year that the widened road would cut congestion and pollution is astonishing. Surely he knows you can't build freeways wide enough to cut congestion at rush hour and that there is no solution to the huge volume of traffic moving through the Split. Physics doesn't allow it -- too many cars, too little space. That said, there have always been votes in widened roads.

Modern mass transit would not solve the Split problem, but at least commuters could get downtown quickly. That's what an environment minister in a G8 capital city should be saying.

Perhaps the Rockland freeway is Ottawa's Spadina Expressway controversy. That the province stopped Toronto's Spadina example 37 years ago at the urging of urban critic Jane Jacobs and media guru Marshall McLuhan among others shows just how far behind Ottawa is when it comes to urban planning. People in progressive cities stopped thinking freeways a long time ago.

Even back then, planners and politicians in Toronto knew that freeways were inefficient. In the words of Progressive Conservative premier Bill Davis when he killed the Spadina project: "If we are building a transportation system to serve the automobile, the Spadina Expressway is a good place to start. But if we are building a transportation system to serve people, the Spadina Expressway is a good place to stop." Accordingly, Mr. Davis helped build a subway along the route.

City council had a rough year in 2007 when it came to transportation. But if Mr. Hume is correct about the mood of council on the Rockland freeway, maybe our municipal representatives are starting to get it right. Now if we can just get the premier and the environment minister off the freeway bandwagon, maybe Ottawa can learn the lesson of Spadina, 37 years late.

Increasingly environmentalism is just artifice and fashion. Say one thing, do something else. Widening Highway 174 is a waste of $104 million of your tax money. It is bad business as usual.

[harls]

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/...ca2160&k=35402

Study looks at bridge locations over Ottawa River

Jake Rupert, Ottawa Citizen

Published: Tuesday, January 29, 2008

The team studying 10 potential future Ottawa River crossing between Gatineau and Ottawa has made some progress, but it will be the end of the year, at the earliest, before preferred locations are chosen.

At a progress update session Tuesday, the team announced that preliminary traffic analysis shows the most used locations for new bridges or tunnels across the Ottawa River would be Kettle Island in the east and Lac Deschenes in the west, if they were constructed today.

They also said they have discounted ferries as crossing option because boats can't handle the expected volume of traffic, and they announced dates for further public consultations.

Ontario, Quebec and the federal governments are currently looking at where new crossings should be.

The locations will be judged on a four-part test. They are looking for the lowest-cost crossings with the most gains to the traffic flow, and the least impact on the natural and human environments in the areas around the locations.

This is the third attempt in 15 years to get agreement on a new Ottawa River crossing that would help the traffic flow in the region and get the area's main trucking route out of downtown Ottawa. The last two attempts failed when governments couldn't agree on locations, cost-sharing and other issues.
After the preferred options are chosen, it will be up to the federal, provincial and municipal governments to commit to the project.

© Ottawa Citizen 2008

[gatt]

give me a real transit system before another bridge please.

[Mille Sabords]

Kettle Island is the only viable choice.

[Rathgrith]

Is the bridge going to be freeway (divided highway) or just a highway?

[harls]

It will likely be a bridge like Champlain, I'm guessing. Something like Macdonald-Cartier would be overkill.

[Mille Sabords]

Originally Posted by harls

It will likely be a bridge like Champlain, I'm guessing. Something like Macdonald-Cartier would be overkill.

As long as it can take all the heavy trucking away from King Edward, I don't care if it has 3 lanes or 30. Just get rid of those trucks downtown.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Mille Sabords

As long as it can take all the heavy trucking away from King Edward, I don't care if it has 3 lanes or 30. Just get rid of those trucks downtown.

I agree, but suspect it will be ten to fifteen years before anything gets built.

[Acajack]

And Autoroute 50 all the way to its endpoint at Autoroute 15 north of Montreal will certainly be long completed by then. This should already take a bit of pressure and trucks off the King Edward/Rideau route, though it won’t resolve the Ottawa-Gatineau local truck traffic that will still make a new bridge necessary.

The official date for the 50 to be completed is the fall of 2010. Not sure if they’ll make it on time, but they should be pretty close.