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Kettle Island has been chosen as the site of a controversial new interprovincial bridge to span the Ottawa River.
The decision is expected to be made public Thursday morning at a joint news conference held by the National Capital Commission, the ROCHE-NCE consulting firm that performed environmental assessments of each proposed site, and the Ontario and Quebec ministries of transportation.
The location, one of 10 sites shortlisted more than a year ago, was endorsed by east end councillors Rainer Bloess, Rob Jellett and Bob Monette.
But the decision to build at Kettle Island has riled community groups and outraged east end politicians who fought to keep the bridge out of their back yard.
“I just cannot believe it. I’m so upset,” said Ottawa-Vanier MPP Madeleine Meilleur, who was informed of the decision during a ministry technical briefing yesterday.
Meilleur said the same site was proposed and rejected back in the 1960s, when the MacDonald-Cartier Bridge was eventually built at King Edward Ave.
“Now look at King Edward,” she said. “They’re just moving the problem to another built-in community. Instead of building the bridge for the next 50 years, they’re building the bridge for the past 50 years. It’s so shortsighted, no vision at all.”
John Forsey, who heads the Manor Park Community Association, was also shocked and disappointed by the decision. He fought the NCC throughout the public consultation process, arguing that a bridge running through a nature preserve so close to the downtown core would have a “devastating” impact on both sides of the river.
“It would be devastating for the Aviation Museum, for the Rockliffe Flying Club. It would have a huge impact on the Montfort Hospital in terms of trucking, vibrations, noise and air pollution,” said Forsey.
An earlier study had recommended the site based on allowing the highest volume of traffic, which Forsey said runs counter to the municipal planning priority of promoting public transit and relieving downtown congestion, not to mention the environmental impact of running a bridge through “a very delicate area” on Kettle Island.
Forsey and Meilleur endorsed an alternative site further east at Lower Duck Island. Meilleur said a bridge there would provide direct access to the Gatineau Airport, and the crossing would land on Greenbelt property already owned by the NCC, with no disturbance of established communities, and with easy access to Hwy. 174 and Hwy. 417.
She said the choice of Kettle Island was purely a “technical solution” concocted by engineers.
“Nobody wants the bridge there,” she said. “We’ll get back on the warpath and let’s hope that we’ll be able to have an agreeable solution with a lot of sense and a lot of good planning.”
— With files from Derek Puddicombe