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  #21  
Old Posted Mar 24, 2015, 1:13 AM
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silvergate silvergate is offline
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Originally Posted by lescopainsdabord View Post
Not entirely sure a completed AV corridor would be wasteful. With the planned truck tunnel downtown, a corridor connecting Nicholas to Riverside might alleviate traffic to and from Gatineau on Vanier Parkway, perhaps even KE Avenue. Granted the tunnel's use would need to be expanded to include car traffic...
There's no way they can afford a tunnel all that way and the whole parkway.
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  #22  
Old Posted Mar 24, 2015, 1:25 PM
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Originally Posted by silvergate View Post
There's no way they can afford a tunnel all that way and the whole parkway.
I personally think it is the Airport Parkway that should divert to Riverside then connect with Nicholas and tunnel to Hwy 5 but I realize this is about as likely to happen as a maple leaf team winning the Stanley Cup.
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  #23  
Old Posted Mar 24, 2015, 1:31 PM
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Originally Posted by lescopainsdabord View Post
Not entirely sure a completed AV corridor would be wasteful. With the planned truck tunnel downtown, a corridor connecting Nicholas to Riverside might alleviate traffic to and from Gatineau on Vanier Parkway, perhaps even KE Avenue. Granted the tunnel's use would need to be expanded to include car traffic...
This was my exact thought when bringing up the subject.

Moreover, I know south-end (riverside) growth has lagged since the initial projections from the early 2000s and the O-train pilot days. However, with that being said, if you have driven through South riverside or Leitrim lately you'll know the massive scale of development taking place there.

Transit orientated development would be great, but it'll be thirty years minimum until Leitrim and the south have true rapid transit. For now it looks like the only thing the future holds (10 years away) is a dysfunctional O-train system that needs to be further expanded after the recent and continuing expansion nightmare...

I think it really comes down to the fact that the South end has no main arterial roadways which can handle the population growth. Bronson, Heron/Baseline, St. Laurent are all maxed out, you may be able expand riverside.. Nonetheless, I think it is inevitable for the south end of the city which will see a significant amount of the population growth over the next 50 years (2015-2065), some projections propose an additional 700,000 inhabitants to Ottawa over this time. The official 'high growth projections of the city of Ottawa are: Growth between 2006 and 2031 is 336,000."
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  #24  
Old Posted Mar 24, 2015, 1:33 PM
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Originally Posted by daud View Post
I personally think it is the Airport Parkway that should divert to Riverside then connect with Nicholas and tunnel to Hwy 5 but I realize this is about as likely to happen as a maple leaf team winning the Stanley Cup.
This is a good idea that has been brought up before in discussing the Airport-Bronson alignment. The only issue here would be the dinero $$$
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  #25  
Old Posted Sep 24, 2015, 5:12 PM
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Concerns remain over Hospital Link
Road connections, pathway options unveiled in meeting with residents

By Erin McCracken
Ottawa South News, Sep 22, 2015


Though still very much opposed to the Alta Vista Hospital Link now under construction in their neighbourhood, Riverview Park residents say they are trying to make the best of a bad situation.

After years of an information drought, about 40 residents were given what they described as a rare chance to preview the next steps in the project, including three road connection options that would tie in the new route to Ring Road at the hospital complex, where CHEO and the Ottawa Hospital's General campus are located.

“We understand that people are still upset, but we're just trying to make the best of a bad situation,” said Kris Nanda, president of the Riverview Park Community Association, which hosted a meeting to update residents at Riverview Alternative School on Sept. 16.

The reason for the new two-lane $69.7-million Hospital Link, which is being built from Riverside Drive and the Transitway, across Alta Vista Drive to Ring Road, is to improve bus and ambulance service to the hospitals and alleviate traffic congestion.

The new route will also feature transit lanes, and will require a bypass of a Via rail line.

The connection options include a T-stop or roundabout at the west end of Ring Road, as well as a third option farther east behind the complex, known as the mid-way connection.

“We're hoping to have that (decision) finalized with the hospital in the next couple of months,” said city engineer Bruce Kenny, who is managing the construction project.

Construction of the connector would begin in 2016 or 2017.

There are no plans to open the Ring Road hospital connector until the connection at Riverside Drive is complete, so as to keep traffic from flooding onto Alta Vista Drive in the meantime. The entire link will open in fall 2017.

The third option raised the hackles of several residents since it would essentially be built, not only to serve hospital traffic, but also to hook up to the future Alta Vista Transportation Corridor. The four-lane thoroughfare would run from the north end of Conroy Road at Walkley Road, through green space, curve around the hospital complex and link up to Nicholas Road at Highway 417.

Several community associations have been against the corridor plan since the concept was first pitched in the 1960s.

Riverview Park residents have long said it would bring more traffic and noise to their community, pose a safety risk for children, and eliminate a big chunk of their green space – similar to the link, which they also say will not serve them.

Motorists heading south on Alta Vista Drive will not be permitted to turn left onto the new link into the complex.

Alta Vista Coun. Jean Cloutier said the route is designed to serve the hospitals' patients, several hundred volunteers and 7,000 staff members, the majority of whom come from outside the ward.

With the new road, motorists coming in from the Queensway will choose Riverside Drive over Alta Vista Drive, he said.

“It'll be much faster and it'll alleviate traffic on Alta Vista.”

Though included in the city's transportation master plan, there are no intentions to build the corridor until after 2031, though city council could amend that.

“If the (corridor) project ever did proceed under separate council approval ... then that connection would be there,” Kenny said. “But that's post-2031 planning horizon.”

Like Riverview Park residents, those living in Old Ottawa East share similar concerns that the new link won't benefit them and will funnel more traffic downtown.

Though paid for by development charges, the link is “very expensive and a real concern is that if they do that, they'll want to do the whole darn thing, which, from our (Old Ottawa East's) standpoint, Sandy Hill's standpoint and really from the city's standpoint, doesn't make a lot of sense,” said John Dance, president of the Ottawa East Community Association, who did not attend the recent meeting.

If built, the corridor would span the Rideau River and end in Old Ottawa East, eradicating a treasured recreational green space and cutting off apartment towers on Lees Avenue from the rest of the community, Dance said.

“When the Hospital Link's done after they spend this $70-million, we'll see what sort of impact that really has and we'll see if there's really a lot of use of it,” he said. “I think it's going to be extraordinarily expensive for relatively little use and if that's the case, it'll be one more reason not to proceed with any additional parts of (the corridor).”

Though there are three Ring Road connection options to choose from, the city is currently not leaning toward the mid-way connection.

“The community has no desire to do that. It's still an option, but it's not really our preferred option,” Kenny said, adding that while the hospital has indicated that option works for them, the T-stop and roundabout also work.

“If it doesn't work for the community, it's something we need to discuss,” he said.

The Hospital Link is currently being built through a green space and hydro-line route between Riverview Park and the hospital. More of that strip, including a heavily forested section, would be further eradicated if the mid-way connection goes ahead.

“It doesn't make sense to destroy a significant parcel of forested green space for a project that wouldn't be on the books until at least 2031,” Nanda said. “2031's a long way away. The rest of it (the corridor), we hope, will never be built.”

PATHWAY DESIGN

Residents also got a look at proposed multi-use pathways that would be built as part of the Hospital Link, but which can't be finalized until a Ring Road connection design is chosen.

They also learned their feedback will be sought on the link’s landscape design.

“During our tender period, we realized that maybe all the healing hadn't happened in the community,” said Kenny, of the reason why the landscaping contract was separated from the link construction contract.

“We didn't feel that there necessarily hadn't been enough dialogue.”

Nanda said the last time there was a public meeting on the Hospital Link was in 2014, and before that, it had been at least five or six years.

“I think that's been one of the reasons why there has been a lot of concern,” Nanda said. “There hasn't been the consultation. We're glad that we finally had this meeting.”

NATIONAL DEFENCE LANDS

The link will also be well-situated to serve a future development at the Canadian Forces Health Care Centre Ottawa at Alta Vista and Valour drives, said Cloutier.

National Defence is looking to sell its former medical site, which is now used for administration.

The city last looked in 2008 at how it could rezone the property before it goes on the open market

“That will have to be refreshed,” said Cloutier, adding it will be at least five years before that parcel changes hands.

“The hospital has some interest,” he said, adding the neighbourhing hospital complex, which includes the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Medicine, is the largest hospital complex in Canada.

There is enough space at the military site for 700 residential units, but it may be better suited for a mixed-use development with medical capabilities, Cloutier suggested.

“Is that the best use of that land or should it be maybe be more angled towards research, more institutional?” he said. “Does the hospital need this?”

http://www.ottawacommunitynews.com/n...hospital-link/
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  #26  
Old Posted Sep 24, 2015, 5:17 PM
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  #27  
Old Posted Sep 24, 2015, 5:18 PM
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  #28  
Old Posted Dec 22, 2015, 6:45 PM
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November 2015 – Hospital Link Project Update

October 2015 – Hospital Link Project Update
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  #29  
Old Posted Dec 22, 2015, 6:47 PM
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T-stop design proposed for Hospital Link intersection
Hospital reps to sign off on intersection design in the spring: Councillor

By Erin McCracken
Ottawa South News, Dec 16, 2015




City staff are awaiting the green light from hospital officials to construct its preferred design for a new intersection that would connect the Alta Vista Hospital Link to Ring Road at the hospital complex in the Riverview Park community.

While hospital stakeholders are not expected to sign off on one of the three designs proposed by the city before spring, Alta Vista Coun. Jean Cloutier is optimistic they will side with the city’s preferred option of the three on the drawing board.

“People saw the rationale for the current design,” he said.

A T-stop is the city's preferred option, which would connect a two-lane route currently being constructed from Riverside Drive to Ring Road at the complex, where CHEO, the General campus of the Ottawa Hospital, and several other medical centres are located.

The $69.7-million Hospital Link, which is being paid for by development charges and will feature transit lanes and a Via rail line bypass, is meant to serve as a backdoor into the medical complex to alleviate traffic congestion at Alta Vista Drive and Smyth Road and along Smyth, as well as improve bus and ambulance service.

City staff told Riverview Park residents at a public meeting in mid-September that a decision on the intersection connection would be made in November.

Though they've waited longer than anticipated, the project has not been delayed, said Cloutier, noting the link's construction is currently on time and on budget.

Nor does the councillor expect hospital officials will choose one of the other intersection designs put on the table, and said they are currently weighing legalities, liabilities and responsibilities for plowing and maintaining different sections of the road.

SHORTCUT

In a late summer meeting held before the public was updated in September about the Hospital Link construction, city staff and Cloutier met with reps from the hospitals who requested information about speeds, accessibility, directional signage and truck access for the new route.

“They asked questions about people using the hospital property as a cut-through,” Cloutier added, giving the example of motorists who could use the link to cut through the hospital complex, turn left onto Smyth Road and continue heading east.

“With proper signage and enforcement we'll be able to take care of that because we don't want people who don't have business at the hospital to use the hospital property as a cut-through on their daily commute,” Cloutier said. “We want it to be used for the visitors, the patients, the emergency vehicles and the bus traffic to the hospital.”

While it’s not known if motorists would use it once open as a shortcut, Cloutier said the city can consider potential mitigation.

Speed humps could be considered, but Cloutier said he doesn't support these since they create problems for emergency vehicles.

T-STOP ADVANTAGES

The city prefers the T-stop intersection be built near TransAlta's cogeneration facility (known by locals as the 'plumerator'), rather than a roundabout at the same spot or an intersection farther east, known as the mid-way connection.

“That would have chewed up more hectares of forest,” Cloutier said of the more easterly mid-way connector. “I think it would have been one more hectare of forest that would have been lost because of the construction if it would have been placed there.”

Trees will still have to be removed from a parcel of green space, where hydro lines are located, on the northern edge of the campus to make room for the new road.

With a westerly connector, “... we are reducing the trees to be cleared from 2.3 hectares down to 1.3 hectares,” said Cloutier. “So that's a good thing.”

Though the city does not want to go with the mid-way connection for now, this doesn't close the door on building it in the future and linking it, as intended, to the Alta Vista Transportation Corridor.

That four-lane thoroughfare – which has faced opposition over the years by residents who argue it would jeopardize their quality of life – would be built from the north end of Conroy Road at Walkley Road, curve around the hospital complex and hook up to Nicholas Road at Highway 417.

Cloutier said this corridor won't be contemplated until 2031.

ROUNDABOUT OPTION

Putting in the other option of a roundabout instead of a T-stop also doesn't make sense for that new intersection.

“We expect that trucks will be entering the hospital compound from that new road and thus alleviate traffic on Smyth (Road),” said Cloutier. “The roundabout, while they could have maneouvered it, it would have been very difficult.”

By constructing a three-way stop at the intersection rather than a roundabout, motorists unfamiliar with the complex will have more time to read directional signs pointing the way to various centres in the complex.

The new intersection will be built in either 2016 or 2017, but won’t be open until the entire Hospital Link is ready in December 2017.

http://www.ottawacommunitynews.com/n...-intersection/
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  #30  
Old Posted Mar 23, 2016, 5:19 PM
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Hospital committee supports Link Road connection
Hospital Link first step to alleviate congestion ahead of medical complex expansion

By Erin McCracken
Ottawa South News, Mar 23, 2016




Hospital officials have given their stamp of approval to the city’s design for a future Hospital Link connection at Ring Road, a critical step they say will help alleviate traffic congestion.

In keeping with the pace of growth at the Ottawa Hospital’s General campus, CHEO and the University of Ottawa’s medical school, traffic has been growing incrementally there for at least the past decade, said Cameron Love, vice-president and chief operating officer of the Ottawa Hospital.

“And it only keeps growing and there’s really only one access point to that campus, which is Smyth Road,” he said.

For that reason, the Ottawa Health Sciences Centre views the future Hospital Link as a key component to relieving some of the pressure and giving motorists – patient families, volunteers and staff – more options.

The hospital’s decision to support the city’s preferred T-stop junction, which will connect the future Hospital Link Road on the north side of the medical complex to Ring Road, is a recent development.

City staff and Alta Vista Coun. Jean Cloutier said they pitched the design to hospital stakeholders in late February.

“(Hospital officials) supported that and based on (the city’s) findings and recommendations we supported the T-stop as the first step in a multi-phase project as probably the most efficient,” said Love, a member of the Ottawa Health Sciences Centre, comprised of reps from all three health organizations at the complex who govern site planning and administration, overseeing utilities, general upkeep and road maintenance.

The centre preferred the T-stop over a roundabout design and an easterly mid-way connection because it’s a natural connection point, said Love.

The T-stop would give drivers the chance to stop at the entrance to the complex and get their bearings from directional signage, said Cloutier.

“It does work well for (the hospital) as opposed to a roundabout,” he said, adding it was also the preferred design among local residents.

Construction of the $69.7-million two-lane Hospital Link Road and transit route is underway, from Riverside Drive, across Alta Vista Drive, north behind the National Defence Medical Centre and the hospital complex.

It is seen as the first leg of the controversial Alta Vista Transportation Corridor, that, with its full build-out, would eventually see the north end of Conroy Road at Walkley Road continue on as a four-lane corridor. It will connect to the Hospital Link and on to Nicholas Road at Highway 417.

The city has said there are no plans to build the corridor until 2031.

However, the health sciences centre has “reoriented” its expansion plans with the understanding the complex would have added entrances and exits with the Link, and in the next 20 years, with the corridor, said Love.

It will offer a more direct route for vehicles coming off Highway 417, and provide motorists with added options, he noted.

“From Day One we’ve been very supportive of the city putting in this new road system over a 20-year period because it will help with the management of traffic to the campus, because now we’re going to have multiple access points and not just one,” he said.

EXPANSION EYED

The Ottawa Hospital has big plans for its General campus, including relocating the rehabilitation centre from the General to the Civic over the next 10 to 20 years, as part of the redevelopment of the Civic campus, Love said.

“We would reorient our emergency department. We’d build a new inpatient tower,” Love said. “CHEO had an expansion. The university was going to build an addition to its medical school.

“But the access points for those new buildings and the transportation planning took into consideration that new road at the top of the campus.”

While Love said the hospital currently doesn’t have adequate traffic projections that would paint a clear picture of future demand for the Link and Corridor, it will largely depend on future growth at the complex, which will depend on how health care is funded by the province in the coming years.

The Cancer Centre at the General will see increased demand, since cancer activity, that is more people seeking care at the centre, is expected to climb by 40 per cent over the next decade.

“It’s more people diagnosed. It’s also a factor in terms of the growth in the population,” Love said.

The expansion will also mean adding to base program services, such as expanding the size of the General’s emergency department over the next two decades.

The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute at the General, where vision, cancer and stem cell research, for example, are being conducted, will also need to grow in size, Love said, but added there are currently no fixed plans for that.

Growth of the campus will also translate into added parking spaces – either flat-top lots or garages – in the same time frame, said Love.

NATIONAL DEFENCE PROPERTY

The expansion of the complex will largely depend on how much land the corporation is able to secure from the National Defence Medical Centre, located next door to the west.

The plan is to use about half of that property, Love said, but added it still belongs to the federal government. Discussions will restart once the feds identify the timeline for selling.

Cloutier said in 2015 it will be five years before that property becomes available.

But with growth at that site, it will make the Hospital Link, and ultimately the Alta Vista Transportation corridor, so important, Love said.

Already, the three organizations employ 4,000 to 5,000 staff.

Shift changes around 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. mean crunch time as motorists head in and out of the campus via one bottlenecked route on Smyth, Love said.

Though Cloutier said construction of the new intersection at Ring Road is slated to begin this year, it won’t open until the entire Link is ready in fall 2017.

It is difficult to say at this point just how much traffic the new route will attract, though it’s expected to be popular with west-end drivers, said Love.

“I think what you’re going to see is, off the bat, it’s going to grow over time as people become more aware of it,” he said. “Staff will definitely use that access point.”

http://www.ottawacommunitynews.com/n...ad-connection/
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  #31  
Old Posted Jun 26, 2017, 1:28 PM
Norman Bates Norman Bates is offline
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Anyone know when this will open to vehicular traffic?
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  #32  
Old Posted Jun 26, 2017, 1:35 PM
TransitZilla TransitZilla is offline
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Anyone know when this will open to vehicular traffic?
It's supposed to be done this year. Councillor Cloutier has a page on his website with updates: http://jeancloutier.com/projects/hospitallink/
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  #33  
Old Posted Jun 27, 2017, 1:22 PM
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I can't believe it took this long to get another access point to the General, but glad to see it finally materializing.
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  #34  
Old Posted Dec 17, 2017, 10:01 PM
OCCheetos OCCheetos is offline
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As of yesterday, the road is now open to traffic.



The lane on the right past the median leads to the Transitway, and there's another lane just in view on the left that comes from the Transitway.

Last edited by OCCheetos; Dec 18, 2017 at 3:29 AM.
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  #35  
Old Posted Dec 19, 2017, 10:06 PM
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I forget, why was this built?
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  #36  
Old Posted Dec 20, 2017, 12:53 AM
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I forget, why was this built?
To improve ambulance service to the hospital.
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  #37  
Old Posted Dec 20, 2017, 1:40 AM
OCCheetos OCCheetos is offline
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I forget, why was this built?
I think the eventual plan is to connect it to Nicholas Street across the river, and then south to Conroy.
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  #38  
Old Posted Dec 20, 2017, 3:20 AM
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I think the eventual plan is to connect it to Nicholas Street across the river, and then south to Conroy.

Yep that's the plan
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  #39  
Old Posted Dec 20, 2017, 3:33 PM
AndyMEng AndyMEng is offline
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Yep that's the plan
Its an incremental death-by-a-thousand-cuts style approach because the NIMBY's in the surrounding neighborhood are bat-Sh*t crazy. The city had to get creative with the development of this route. Next will be the bridge over the river to Nicholas (which would be amazing, by the way), and following that, the connection to Walkley and points beyond.

North section - connection to Nicholas (how great would it be to just continue on Nicholas and arrive in Alta Vista!)


South section - connection to Walkley (as if this will ever happen with all those old-stock Canadians in that neighborhood)
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  #40  
Old Posted Dec 20, 2017, 4:28 PM
Lakeofthewood Lakeofthewood is offline
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South section - connection to Walkley (as if this will ever happen with all those old-stock Canadians in that neighborhood)
Whenever this south section starts to get developed I am going to sit back with some popcorn and watch the fireworks. The NIMBYism here is going to be insane
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