Specialized machines allow for directional drilling so installation of new electric cables can be done without digging lengthy trenches. The drilling for the Canal lighting on OOE’s portion of Colonel By Drive began in December and is slated to finish this month. The drilling for wiring on the adjacent pathway will not be completed until May. While the entire new lighting system won’t be finished until winter 2025, sections of the route will be energized earlier as they are completed. Images by National Capital Commission
The new lights along the Rideau Canal will be much improved compared to the failing system now in place, according to the National Capital Commission (NCC). Finally, after years of complaint by Canal pathway and roadway users, the upgrading of the dysfunctional and obsolete lighting along both sides of the Rideau Canal stretching from Wellington Street to Hog’s Back has begun.
Overall, at the end of the project (tentatively by 2025), the number of lights will increase by 50 percent for a new total of 1224 roadway and pathway lights.
Currently, Old Ottawa East’s 2.5-kilometre section of Colonel By Drive has many roadway lights that are not working, and there are sections of the pathway – especially near Pretoria Bridge where there are no lights at all.
The new streetlights along Colonel By Drive retain their iconic style (SR) but the pathway lights of the OOE portion of the Colonel By Drive pathway will be either the new “cut-off light” style or “modernized globe lighting” (T1). Images by National Capital Commission
The massive project with its 15-kilometre-long construction zone is necessary because the existing system is “beyond repair,” according to the NCC, which stresses that the work will respect the heritage of the Canal while allowing updates to new lighting technology.
Key changes for the Old Ottawa East (OOE) portion of the project are modernized street lights installed in line within railings that will illuminate both the pathway and the roadway between Bank Street and roughly Mutchmor Road. Between Mutchmor and Pretoria Bridge the street lighting will be modernized and “new contemporary cut-off lights” will be installed along the pathway. From Pretoria Bridge to Concord Street North, the street lighting will be modernized and globe fixtures will be placed along the pathway.
Although new underground wiring will be primarily installed with “directional drilling,” rather than by digging lengthy trenches, there will be pathway detours. At a stakeholders’ session in November, NCC staff said there will be “relatively low impact on users” but it’s “too early” to provide a traffic plan.
The new streetlights along Colonel By Drive retain their iconic style (SR) but the pathway lights of the OOE portion of the Colonel By Drive pathway will be either the new “cut-off light” style or “modernized globe lighting” (T1). Images by National Capital Commission
The big question is what obstacles will be found as the drilling occurs. There are no engineering drawings for much of the area where the drilling must be done
Rocks and other obstacles may delay the schedule.
The project’s staging area has been constructed just south of the western end of the Pretoria Bridge. The excavation/directional drilling work on both sides of the Canal is currently on-going. It began in November on the Queen Elizabeth Drive side of the Canal in the Glebe and got underway along the OOE portion of Colonel By Drive in December. By next summer, the old lights will be removed and the new ones installed with targeted completion during “winter 2025.”
Reinstatement of landscaping and additional planting should be done after the lights are energized and construction is completed.
The good news is that the new lights will be energized as the various sections are completed. It will not be a matter of waiting for the winter 2025 for a switch to be thrown to energize the entire system.
