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?”
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