FIXING UP THE UNDERPASS
CN Railway to study safety tunnel
Another hurdle has been cleared towards creating a new multi-use trail to resolve woes created by the underpass known as the “Dougall Death Trap.”
CN Railway has agreed to undertake its own engineering review of a proposal that would see creation of a new burrowed tunnel on the west side of the railway overpass to provide pedestrians and cyclists a safer conduit for travel, Mayor Drew Dilkens said Tuesday. The city has issued a purchasing order for $10,000 to cover the costs associated with the CN review, which will be completed over the next several months. Securing corporate railway cooperation for the project — expected to cost in the range of $7 million — has been a major stumbling block to launching construction. “I’m very excited we have made some more progress,” Dilkens said. “We have done everything we can — we completed the EA (environmental assessment) and council has allocated about two million (dollars in the budget). “Now it’s about getting the railways on board. We know now we have them as partners and can get the engineering review started. This is a great sign we are on our way to making this project happen.” Tight confines of the railway overpass — located just south of where Ouellette Avenue connects into Dougall Avenue — has historically made it nearly impossible for pedestrians or cyclists to find a safe way through the high-traffic, northsouth road corridor.
Aside from the city already setting aside more than $2 million, there have been hopes to tap into provincial funding grants for cycling infrastructure to assist with costs for the project. Negotiations with CN Railway, users of the rail overpass, have been ongoing for months. CP Railway and Borealis Infrastructure actually own property rights to the overpass and rail corridor further complicating the launch of construction.
“This (engineering review) will take several months for CN to work through,” Dilkens said. “It might seem like a simple thing, but the trains are extremely heavy and any construction has to be done in a safe way. But we are at a point now where this project will come together.”