Rideau St. section closing for 3 years
Rideau Street to be closed to allow building of Confederation Line LRT
Rideau Street businesses facing disruption with the construction of the $2-billion Confederation Line LRT only learned a week ago that a section of Rideau Street will be closed for three years.
“This is going to affect everyone,” said Corey Hackett, co-owner of Top of the World skateboard shop, which has been on Rideau Street for 23 years. “Every business owner I’ve spoken to in the past few days has been concerned.”
Starting Friday, the busy section of downtown Rideau between Mackenzie Avenue and Dalhousie Streets is to be closed to cars and most buses.
The city says pedestrians will be permitted in most parts of the area, but construction fencing and heavy equipment has shopkeepers worried that will likely mean lost foot traffic.
And they question how such a huge project, in the works since 2012, could suddenly require the closure of one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares.
The Confederation Line is not scheduled to open until 2018.
“I don’t think that the city understood the scope of what the construction companies required,” said Hackett.
The city said it plans to work with businesses in the area on a campaign to let Ottawa residents know that the strip will remain open for business, but it’s particularly concerned about how the construction will affect bus traffic.
“Our biggest challenge is not car traffic, it’s making sure there is timely bus operations,” said Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury, adding that recent lane reductions in the area have caused big issues for public-transit schedules. “It’s one of the key stations along the corridor. What’s important is making sure there is on-time transit.
“We’ve had ongoing discussions. It’s different between discussion and the time when implementation comes. The issue here has been making sure everyone is aware what’s happening starting the 28th.”
News of the street disruption — shopkeepers say they were only notified of the three-year closure at a meeting with city staff officials a little over a week ago — sparked the Downtown Rideau Business Improvement Area (BIA) to request a meeting with the city to try to find a way to ensure that foot traffic isn’t significantly impacted.
The area has been through several rounds of construction in recent years. The building of the Shaw Centre, which started with the demolition of the old Ottawa Congress Centre in 2008, snarled traffic in the area heading toward the ByWard Market.
Lane reductions east of Dalhousie due to more recent construction and the installation of large water mains near King Edward Avenue have also taken a toll.
An $8-million project in 2003 to renew a large portion of Bank Street in Old Ottawa South saw foot traffic to area businesses fall by more than 20 per cent as consumers simply chose to avoid the area. That project lasted less than a year, but several shops ended up closing.
The BIA has asked the city to consider finding ways to open portions of the road during off-peak periods, provide more advance notice about construction and the impact it will have, establish passenger drop-off areas within the construction zone, and to set aside funds for a marketing campaign alerting Ottawa residents to the fact that businesses in the area remain open.
“We’re very concerned, which is why we arranged to meet with city officials as quickly as we could,” said Peggy DuCharme, the BIA’s executive director. “This is what’s going to be, and there doesn’t appear that we will have much effect in changing this. It’s a matter of what can we do that can ensure we minimize impact on our business members and economic viability, as well as our customers.”
According to the BIA, as many as 55 per cent of customers arrive at their shops by car. Another large proportion arrives by bus.
“I don’t want people to believe that it’s hell to get down here and it’s an area to be avoided. It’s an optics issue. It’s the continuation of the ongoing construction that’s been going on for years down here,” said Hackett, adding that it’s not in the city’s interest to see Rideau Street business owners close.
“This isn’t a couple months of short-term pain. I don’t think the city’s vision of the first passengers coming out of the LRT at the Rideau Station is that they come out of the underground and are greeted by half of the storefronts being boarded up.”