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Originally Posted by Mille Sabords
Except you can't have dangerous goods on trucks in a tunnel, so the tunnel option is out.
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Is that an actual fact? What's the rationale for not having dangerous goods trucks in a tunnel? That they might spontaneously blow up? (Ok, bad example considering we just had a bus do just that, but I digress). After all, the likelihood of an accident involving a dangerous goods truck (or anything for that matter) is far more likely on a road with many intersections and entrances than it is in a tunnel without any. Tunnels also now have all sorts of safety features (cameras, sprinklers, ventilation, shelters) to minimize the dangers. At any rate, even if they are banned from using a tunnel, what fraction of the truck traffic on King Edward do dangerous goods trucks represent? Whatever fraction it is could be diverted to the Chaudiere bridge or the Prince of Wales bridge on the back of a train.
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One way or the other, both the trucking industry and the rest of the general population would gain from having trucks cross the river somewhere else. Trucks will save time and King Edward can live again.
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I don't think the trucking industry is necessarily going to agree with you. It depends on where they're coming from and where they're going. Detours of 10 km are possible with the Kettle Island crossing. For some trips, the time taken by a Kettle Island routing will be more than by the McDonald-Cartier routing, and if the difference is enough the downtown route will be chosen by the driver.
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And what's wrong with having that as the Number One reason to build a new bridge?
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There's nothing wrong with it, but that's not exclusively why a bridge is being built, though it is being "sold" that way. The downtown truck issue is just one of many reasons that a bridge is being considered.
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It's enough of a frikking disgrace to have our downtown core disfigured by the heavy trucking, I can't believe anyone would even legitimize continuing things as they are.
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I hope you're not implying that that's what I'm doing. I simply looked at the possible sources and destinations of truck traffic and figured that a lot of truck traffic would continue to use King Edward if it could, hence my conclusion that a tunnel in that corridor might be worth examining. Anything heading to points west from Hull for example would be very unlikely to use the Kettle Island bridge.
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When a new bridge is built for the EXPLICIT PURPOSE of ensuring truck crossings, then trucking can be banned from the MacDonald-Cartier Bridge.
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Well that's the crux of the matter, isn't it? It's not being built explicitly for that purpose nor is there any mention of banning trucking from the McD-C Bridge.
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Gatineau is planning an intermodal facility at the Gatineau Airport industrial park.
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That's encouraging; now we need one on the Ottawa side as well (Walkley Yard being the logical place for one).
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And yes the Highway 50 extension will take some truck traffic out of any bridge crossing, but whatever remains has to go somewhere else. Ultimately, car traffic is not and should not drive this bridge, the reconquest of downtown by removing the truck route is and should.
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It should, but it isn't. And that's the point I keep trying to drive home.
From
http://www.ncrcrossings.ca/en/background.html :
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The different levels of government responsible for planning and managing the National Capital Region (NCR) have long been aware of the interprovincial transportation challenges. Previous planning studies (see links below) have identified the Region’s lack of sufficient interprovincial crossing capacity during peak hours as a key constraint to an integrated and efficient interprovincial transportation network.
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"Crossing capacity during peak hours". Read it and weep. This bridge is for commuters' cars. If it was for trucks alone, a simple two-lane bridge would do it, but somehow I think it'll be much wider than that. And it gets worse... one of those 'previous planning studies' says this:
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A new bridge to the east would permit truckers and commuters to bypass
downtown Ottawa and thereby reduce commercial vehicle traffic over the
Chaudières and MacDonald-Cartier crossings by about 25%.
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http://www.ncrcrossings.ca/Documents...THE1999_en.pdf
Even if truck traffic is reduced disproportionately on the MacDonald-Cartier crossing, you're still not looking at 100% diversion or anything close to 100%.