King reopens to new city
Meet the new Kitchener. Friday’s opening of the King Street underpass at Victoria Street is worth celebrating — but not just because it brings to completion a major, often disruptive infrastructure project that cost more than $60 million.
The event showcased the new city, the city of high-tech, the city of light rail, the city of the 21st century.
With motorists honking their horns in celebration and city and regional politicians beaming, it was like the first day of spring after a bitter winter or the last day of school after brutal exams. It was even like the unveiling of a new work of art. This is no exaggeration. This is not your ordinary project. It is a marvel of engineering that means cars and trucks will no longer have to cross over railway tracks and, when a train is passing, stop and wait.
Now, with all the work done and King again open, motor vehicle traffic — and soon light rail trains — will safely and conveniently travel under a bridge that carries the railway tracks.
The underpass took more than two years to complete and forced the longest road closure, in terms of time, in Kitchener’s history.
On top of all this, it is the last big piece of light rail infrastructure to be finished and reopened to traffic. The immediate benefits are obvious. For drivers who have endured two years of inconvenience, frustration, detours and delays on other roads, one of Waterloo Region’s major intersections is finally taking traffic again.
For businesses in the area that had to cope with fewer customers, there’s hope the regulars will be back.
Maybe this time next year, light rail trains will be bringing in more shoppers than ever. But there’s an even bigger picture to be seen here. To view it, stand at Wellington and King streets and look down the hill to Victoria Street and beyond. And be amazed.
There are new businesses — Google’s Canadian headquarters, with its gleaming glass, is the most stunning. There’s new residential development. There’s a new skyline and something politicians, businesses and citizens have wanted for decades — a new sense of vibrancy in this part of downtown Kitchener.
Light rail has been, and probably always will be, controversial.
It’s still dismissed by critics who vow they’ll never ride it and predict it will be a white elephant.
But the new face of Kitchener that greets the world at King and Victoria shows light rail has already spurred welcome growth, development and investment.
Yes. The first phase of light rail, through Waterloo and Kitchener, will cost $818 million.
But between 2011 and the end of 2015 alone, $1.8 billion was invested in new residential, commercial, institutional and industrial development along the 36-kilometre central transit corridor that runs from Waterloo to Cambridge.
More development has happened since then. More will come. This is progress, but don’t take our word. Drive, cycle or walk this stretch of road. And honk, or cheer, if you’re happy.