City council approves next leg of Riverside Drive Vista Project
More than a decade after completion of a study on turning Riverside Drive into a scenic roadway with sidewalks and bike lanes, work is nearing completion on the first of five phases and city council on Monday night gave the green light to the next portion.
“It’s an exciting project,” said Anna Godo, senior engineer with the city’s infrastructure division.
By the end of the 2018 construction season, Phase 1, a 1.7-kilometre stretch from Riverdale Avenue West to Lauzon Road, will be completed at a cost of $7.9 million.
This week, council approved a multi-year, $9.74-million Phase 2A “pre-commitment” for a 1.6-km stretch between St. Rose Avenue and Ford Boulevard.
Only $250,000 of the required funding has been set aside in the approved six-year capital budget (those initial funds were part of Mayor Drew Dilkens’ 2017 enhanced budget), but council will have years to raise the balance. Covering the bulk of the Phase 2A costs will be up to future councils — Monday’s pre-commitment approval covers capital funding through 2024, with more than $7 million of the total cost budgeted for 2023 and 2024.
The entire Riverside Drive Vista Improvement Project, once completed, will extend 16 km along the waterfront from the municipal border with Tecumseh in the east to Rosedale Avenue just west of the Ambassador Bridge.
Godo said an RFP for Phase 2A’s engineering and design consulting will be going out soon, with a contract to be awarded in early 2018. Property acquisitions and utility relocations will follow before road, water and sewer upgrades.
Depending on “efficiencies” and co-operation by the owners of the needed properties, Godo said a year could be shaved off the anticipated Phase 2A completion date of 2022. She also said the start of future phases is not contingent on the completion of the approved phase, but her report to council this week points to a number of other “significant” road reconstruction projects competing for funds.
What perhaps eased the way for city council’s newest Riverside Vista funding approval was the lateAugust record-breaking rainfall that wreaked havoc on thousands of basements. The Riverside Vista sewer and water infrastructure improvements included in Phase 2A are part of the mayor’s eight-point sewer plan to mitigate against future flooding in that area of Ward 6.
Under the plan, Riverside Drive will be widened with painted bike lanes to be added to the asphalt driving surface.
The Riverside Vista plan had a modest start in 2010 — four years after the plan’s initial approval — with intersection work at Crawford Avenue in front of the CBC. When Phase 1 is completed in 2018, it will have been six years since its start.