NCC, City of Ottawa deal puts light rail back on track
Extension to be buried beneath Sir John A. Macdonald parkway
A deal to fully bury the western light rail extension beneath a realigned Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway has settled a long-standing disagreement between the City of Ottawa and the National Capital Commission — and could also signal a new era of co-operation between the two organizations.
At a joint news conference held on neutral territory inside a downtown office building Friday, the city and the NCC announced that the best option for extending light rail west would involve fully burying a train tunnel beneath two eastbound lanes of the parkway.
An earlier plan proposed by the city for the 1.2-kilometre section of the $980-million Richmond Underground would have seen trains travel through a trench, only 700 metres of which would be partly covered, between Dominion station, near where the current Transitway meets the Macdonald Parkway, and Cleary station at Richmond Road and Cleary Avenue.
But in November the NCC’s board dumped cold water on that plan, saying the city should consider another option or, if it’s determined to have the route run alongside the river, dig a deep tunnel for the trains.
Officials from both sides agreed to a 100-day truce so a working group composed of city councillors, NCC board members and senior staff from both organizations could go back to the drawing board.
“Through this process we have found a better option than any of us would have hoped for,” said Coun. Mark Taylor of Bay Ward, who represented the mayor’s office on the group.
The working group looked at two possible routes — a southern one that would see trains pass through Rochester Field and under the Byron Linear Park, and a northern one that would move the alignment about 30 metres closer to the river and fully bury it beneath the parkway.
Ultimately, the group recommended the northern route, which satisfies the two criteria set out by the NCC to provide unimpeded access to lands along the river corridor and shoreline and to protect mature trees in the area.
“We’re very happy with either option. They have different impacts on the community and we’re sympathetic to the City of Ottawa’s perspective that the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway, when you add it all up, is the preferred route, so that’s what we’ll be recommending to our board,” said Mark Kristmanson, the NCC’s chief executive.
From the city’s perspective, the agreement meets its objective of protecting the Byron Linear Park along Richmond Road and keeping costs within the $980-million budget for the western extension.
That’s possible because of approximately $120 million in savings due to what city manager Kent Kirkpatrick called “value engineering” — a process to consider current configurations and design with an eye for reducing costs.
For example, the new proposed route along the parkway would see the tunnel entrance west of Dominion station shift by about 200 metres. That alone could save $20 million, Kirkpatrick said.
Placing the roadway on top of the tunnel could also reduce costs because the trench dug during construction wouldn’t need to be as deep. The top of the tunnel will ultimately be about one metre below the surface of the road.
The latest cost estimates were completed by engineering consultants Parsons and reviewed by NCC consultants, Kristmanson said, adding the working group has much higher confidence in the latest batch of estimates.
As part of the deal, the city will set aside $30 million for the NCC to complete landscape work along the parkway once the tunnel construction has been completed.
The NCC says the agreement will allow it to proceed with long-term plans for a linear park along the Ottawa River that would stretch from the Canadian War Museum in the east to Britannia Park in the west.
Moving the parkway traffic lanes and reducing the size of the median will also create a much wider band of green space along the river.
Once completed, the Richmond Underground would eventually reduce the number of annual bus trips along the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway by nearly half a million.
The public will have a chance to review the city’s preferred option at a March 30 open house, while the NCC’s board will be asked to endorse the plan on April 22.
The city’s transportation committee and council are expected to vote on the recommendation later this year.