Night construction work approved for Highway 417 widening
Two-year noise exemption reduced to two months when planners can’t explain plan
By David Reevely, OTTAWA CITIZEN June 26, 2013
OTTAWA — In an effort to get Highway 417 in eastern Ottawa widened faster, city council suddenly voted Wednesday to let its construction contractor work on the project all night long for the whole summer, to the irritation of councillors representing nearby residents.
The original proposal, “walked on” to the floor of Wednesday’s city council meeting with no notice, was to exempt the Highway 417 widening from the city’s bylaw banning overnight construction noise until September 2015. City council has made a habit of approving such exemptions without telling anybody first, including for work at Lansdowne Park and at an Ashcroft Homes project on the site of a former convent on Richmond Road. The same contractor widening the 417, Rideau Transit Group, is also building the city’s new light-rail line and has a noise-bylaw exemption for tunnelling under downtown.
Cumberland Coun. Stephen Blais presented the motion as a way of reducing the traffic congestion the widening has imposed on commuters from Orléans.
RTG asked for the exemption and Wednesday’s meeting was the first chance to put it before city council, explained Gary Craig, who’s in charge of the rail project.
“We are in the prime construction season, as far as taking advantage of the construction season that is available to us,” he said, and waiting three weeks until the next meeting would chew up too much time. If some work gets done at night, it’ll all be over with sooner.
Relatively few people live close to the stretch of the 417 that is to be widened, between Nicholas Street and the split with Highway 174. But people do live there nonetheless, especially in high-rises on Lees Avenue and in Eastway Gardens near the train station.
“I appreciate that it has to happen, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired,” complained Alta Vista Coun. Peter Hume, who represents Eastway Gardens. Hume has just finished distributing information packages to residents about what the LRT construction will mean for them. The packages don’t mention this because nobody had told him about it. Those residents live in a noisy area already and night time is when they get some peace, Hume said. It’s not fair to tell them they could be dealing with round-the-clock construction noise for more than two years.
Capital Coun. David Chernushenko, who represents the Lees Avenue apartment blocks, agreed. People can adjust their lives somewhat to get away from a racket they know is coming, but a blanket exemption from the noise bylaw makes that impossible.
“They can’t do it for a whole summer, let alone two years,” Chernushenko said.
Craig promised that the plan is only to use the noise bylaw exemption in a limited way, but beyond a plan to install a storm sewer near the highway this summer, he couldn’t explain the details.
At Mayor Jim Watson’s suggestion, councillors approved a blanket exemption that lasts only until September, along with an instruction to Craig to come back before then with a more detailed construction schedule if he and Rideau Transit Group want the exemption extended.
dreevely@ottawacitizen.com
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