Mayor Watson wants council to spend money on studying Barrhaven LRT
Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Updated: June 13, 2018
It was only a matter of time before city hall addressed the elephant on the LRT blueprint: Barrhaven.
Mayor Jim Watson and Barrhaven Coun. Jan Harder announced they’ll ask council on Wednesday to earmark $600,000 to go toward an environmental assessment for an LRT extension from Algonquin College to Barrhaven.
An environmental assessment is the first necessary step to building an LRT line, but the actual construction is likely many years away. Watson has said the obvious Stage 3 LRT project is extending LRT to Kanata.
Of course, the city hasn’t even finished building Stage 1 — the 12.5-kilometre LRT line between Tunney’s Pasture and Blair station, through a downtown tunnel — or started construction of Stage 2, which will extend LRT to Moodie Drive, Trim Road and Algonquin College, plus extend the Trillium Line to the Ottawa International Airport and Riverside South.
But the Barrhaven conundrum has become glaringly obvious as the other suburbs are either on track for LRT or have been studied for a rail extension.
The municipal election is in October. Watson and Harder have both filed their nomination papers to seek re-election.
Harder
called for a Barrhaven LRT feasibility study in 2017 when council approved the Stage 2 blueprint.
Bringing LRT to Barrhaven would mean converting the current rapid-bus line to rail, likely requiring underpasses or overpasses at intersections, but an environmental assessment would provide the construction options and costs.
The city would begin the environmental assessment this fall and the study would take between one and two years.
Watson hasn’t said how much the environmental assessment costs. The city money identified so far will come from development charges ($336,000) and the transit capital reserve ($234,000).
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