Public to weigh in on the future of city's LRT.
The new plan calls for the tunnel to run only four storeys below Queen Street, allowing the city to better control both the risk and cost of the project.
City of Ottawa
Ottawa residents will have a chance to voice their views on the future of the city’s light rail before the council votes on the implementation of the recently revised project at a special meeting on July 14.
Last week, Mayor Jim Watson announced changes to the city’s proposed LRT plan to keep the project in line with the $2.1 billion budget.
The new plan would involve moving the proposed tunnel section one block to the north, running under Queen Street, rather than beneath Albert Street. The depth of the tunnel would also be reduced, moving from the originally proposed depth of 12 storeys to four storeys, reducing both the cost and risk of the project.
“This makes more sense and it is cost effective,” said Watson.
According to Watson, going down 12 storeys would involve too many escalators, making the project problematic from both a safety and customer friendliness point of view.
“The plan released today proposes a new alignment and a more practical tunnel that makes a lot more sense,” Watson said in a statement. “The resulting product – the first phase of our light rail transit system – will be a significant improvement and it will be less costly than the previous plan.”
The change is the result of a city council directive to re-evaluate the project and benefitted from months of engineering evaluation that began late last year.
The new alignment, for the most part, will follow the Queen and Rideau Street right-of-way through the downtown, avoiding the need for deep tunneling under buildings and limiting the amount of money required to acquire subterranean rights, Watson said.
“I am determined with my council colleagues, to deliver light rail in a financially sustainable way,” Watson said.
The mayor noted the city is currently coping with a downtown transit bottleneck that sees transit grind to a halt during rush hour, a problem that will only get worse over time.
According to a city staff report, transit ridership per capita in Ottawa is already among the highest of any comparable city in North America, a trend that is likely to continue.
“Moving ahead with light rail saves money when measured against the alternatives of attempting to push more buses through the downtown, while also greatly increasing capacity to accommodate projected ridership increases,” Watson said.
Once light rail and the downtown tunnel are in place, the number of buses travelling through the downtown core will be cut in half, taking at least 2,000 buses off downtown streets per day.
It is anticipated that LRT would also cut down on the number of vehicles in the core, as many people will opt to use the more efficient mode of transit.
When the project gets underway, Watson said it would generate close to 20,000 person hours of employment and $3 billion in related economic activity during the construction period alone. The city hopes to have the project completed by 2018.