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A National Capital Commission-led study of potential new inter-provincial Ottawa River crossings has added two new corridors to the eight already announced.
The team leading the project has added a new potential route on the western edge of the Quebec side of National Capital area, and added a new potential crossing at Lower Duck Island on the eastern side of the urban area.
Project leader Steven Taylor said the new corridors were added after public consultation meetings with residents and officials on both sides of the river. He said they were suggested, there was “valid rationale” for both of them, they will be included in the next phase of the study.
“No decisions have been made, and we’ll be treating each corridor equally as the process continues,” he said.
The team will now look at a host of impacts the development of each corridor could cause. These range from effects on aquatic life to noise and traffic in the proposed areas.
Ottawa city councillors, who have already voted on the crossing they prefer, reacted angrily to the news. They wanted the number of potential crossing points reduced not increased.
In June, council voted to tell the commission to drop three potential west end locations from the study because the need for a bridge in the east end is greater. Councillors also decided that its preferred east end crossing point is Kettle Island near the Aviation Parkway.
Yesterday, Bay Councillor Alex Cullen, in which whose ward two potential crossing points are being contemplated, was furious that the sites are still being considered because both would require major roads through a city park.
“The idea of crossing Lac Deschenes is so obviously a non-starter, one has to wonder why it is still in the study,” he said. “It would be enormously expensive, blight a beautiful lake, (and) destroy an important community park.”
© Ottawa Citizen 2007