Overhaul to snarl Elgin till late 2019

A major construction project on Elgin Street will begin next month, forcing lane reductions and closures on side streets, city staff have warned council.

Alain Gonthier, director of infrastructure services, told council in a memo that Bell Canada will start fixing maintenance chambers and installing ducts in March.

His email kicked off an email exchange over the weekend between a handful of council members and staff. Councillors are worried that the construction on Elgin Street will seriously affect traffic. Downtown travellers have already been navigating detours due to a closure of O’Connor Street to accommodate Bell’s manhole reconstruction. The work on O’Connor Street is scheduled to be complete by Friday, but just as it reopens, another major north-south route will be affected.

“One lane of traffic in each direction on Elgin Street will be maintained at all times,” Gonthier says in the memo. “This work must be undertaken in advanced of (the) planned renewal of Elgin and is expected to be complete by fall 2018.”

The $42-million project, which also includes pieces of Waverley Street and Hawthorne Avenue, was approved by council last year. Some of the watermains and sewers under the roads are more than 100 years old. Council knew preliminary work would begin in 2018, but Gonthier’s memo confirms it will last through the summer.

Bell is already doing investigative work along Elgin Street at Argyle Avenue, McLeod Street and Isabella Street during off-peak hours.

Gonthier’s memo doesn’t say when in March that the more substantive work will begin.

Bell’s work will happen between Gloucester and Isabella streets, but the construction will be concentrated at intersections. On top of that, Bell might have to do work at Elgin Street and Laurier Avenue.

Once Bell’s work is done in the fall, Hydro Ottawa will need to close one lane of Elgin to replace hydro poles, followed by “spot closures” once the poles are installed, the memo says. The work will take until the end of 2018.

The most significant effect to Elgin Street will start in January 2019 when the road reconstruction begins. Elgin will be fully closed between Gloucester and Isabella streets. The city expects the road to reopen by the end of 2019.

In 2019, the city will make parking free at city hall on weeknights and on weekends, since parking along Elgin Street won’t be available.

Final asphalting, sidewalk work and streetscaping will start in spring 2020 and last for the construction season that year. Elgin Street will once again be reduced to one lane. The city is planning multiple public information sessions between 2018 and 2020.