Plans to replace the deteriorating Highway 417 Rideau Canal bridge are unpopular with the communities on both sides of the Canal. Efforts to get the Ministry of Transportation (Ontario) to reconsider the proposed 90-week shutdown of the Canal parkways have fallen on deaf ears thus far. Photo by John Dance
John Dance
The Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO) is barrelling ahead with its recommendation to have 90-week detours of Colonel By Drive and Queen Elizabeth Driveway when it replaces the deteriorated Highway 417 bridge over the Rideau Canal, a project that will begin after the City’s Greenfield, Main, Hawthorne reconstruction project is completed.
As reported in the April issue of The Mainstreeter, the 90-week detour information came as a shocking surprise to residents who, in the five years of work and consultation leading up to the announcement of the new recommendation, had not heard of the possibility of any detours except brief ones required for the actual “rapid replacement” of the assembled new structure.
In May, MPP Joel Harden organized a meeting so that he and representatives of the Old Ottawa East Community Association (OOECA) could learn additional details of the MTO plan. MTO noted that through its November “public information centre” they’d received only 12 comments expressing “concern for impacts to active transportation, tourism and traffic.” They also noted that the parkway closures were “formally accepted by NCC letter dated November 23, 2021,” a year before the recommendation was provided to the public.
At the previous “public information centre,” held three years earlier, MTO’s recommended plan for bridge reconstruction required the demolition of the two buildings at and near the northeast corner of Colonel By Drive and Hawthorne Avenue. A number of residents objected to the demolition. At that time, no one in the community was aware that the alternative to demolition would require 90-week detours.
MTO says the new recommendation will save the two buildings, avoid endangering a major watermain to the south of the bridge, and improve the safety of the construction work area.
With both the previous and current recommendations, the Rideau Skateway and Canal boat traffic will not be adversely affected. However, it is not clear why skaters and boaters won’t be affected yet motorists, pedestrians and cyclists now will be.
MTO’s responses to The Mainstreeter questions have been vague. The Mainstreeter posed the following questions: “What studies have been done by MTO to analyse the impact of the 90-week detour of Colonel By traffic onto Main and Hawthorne and the detour of Queen Elizabeth Driveway traffic onto Elgin and Argyle? How much longer will it take (…) drivers to make their transit when they have to take these detours at peak periods? What provisions will be made to ensure the safety of pedestrians and cyclists who use the streets that will be on the detour routes?”
After much prodding, the MTO responded: “The ministry is in the process of finalizing the design and confirming the final scope of the project. This will include completing traffic management plans. Opportunities to make this closure time as short as possible will be pursued during detail design. Plans for the detour routes, including safety for pedestrians and cyclists, will also be completed during detail design.”
So it sounds as though MTO has no clear idea of the impact of the detours and how much longer it will take motorists to make their peak period transits through Old Ottawa East. The City of Ottawa told The Mainstreeter that it had not done such studies because it is MTO’s responsibility.
One slight glimmer of hope is that within the material that MTO distributed after its meeting with Joel Harden and OOECA, there was – in small print on the third last page of the 65-page document – the note “Time of detour (CBD and QED pedestrian and Cyclist detour) – Intermittent periods throughout 90-week construction period.” There was no mention of “intermittent periods” during the meeting’s discussion of detours. But even if the detours for cyclists and pedestrians turn out to be “just” intermittent, motorists will still be detoured onto busy Main and Elgin streets.
This spring, MTO will finalize its “transportation environmental study report” on the bridge replacement project and, in the summer, there will be a 30-day public review. It sounds as though more than 12 people are going to have to object to the recommendations and their lengthy detours if there is to be any possibility of MTO developing a less disruptive plan.
