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OTTAWA — A new round of public consultations is about to begin as the process of selecting a route for a controversial new Ottawa River crossing enters its final phase.
The last four rounds of consultations will begin this month and end in the fall of 2012. By then, the group conducting the federal environmental assessment study, called the Roche-GENIVAR Joint Venture, will have selected its preferred corridor for the new bridge from the three still under consideration — Kettle Island, Lower Duck Island and Gatineau Airport/McLaurin Bay.
The latest consultations will begin in Gatineau on June 11 with a “world café” — essentially, small group discussions — on how a new interprovincial bridge would affect the National Capital Region. A similar event will be held in Ottawa on June 18.
Other meetings will be held between June 14 and June 16 for residents of communities within or adjacent to one of the three corridor candidates. Those meetings will focus more narrowly on the impact of a new crossing on affected communities.
“Those will be the ones that people can roll up their shirt sleeves and actually write down or mark on maps exact issues they want to be considered,” said project manager Steve Taylor.
The project team will hold more consultations this fall to present mitigation measures for the harm a new bridge might do, and functional designs that respond to the community values expressed in the first round.
There’ll be a third round of consultations next spring, seeking input on the study team’s ranking and evaluation of the alternative corridors. In the fall of 2012, the study team will hold one last round of consultations to get public comment on a preliminary design for the selected corridor.
Taylor said the study team hopes to complete the federal environmental assessment study and report to the project’s funding partners — the federal, Ontario and Quebec governments — by late 2012 or early 2013. It will be up to them, he said, to make a “go-no-go decision” on the project.
Planning and consultation on the new bridge began in late 2006. “It’s a big project and there are a lot of issues,” Taylor said. “You want to be respectful for the people who will be directly affected.”
Proponents say a new crossing is needed to relieve congestion on the existing five bridges and divert truck traffic away from King Edward Avenue and the Macdonald Cartier Bridge, which handles an average of 2,100 heavy trucks daily.
But those who live near the three possible routes have vigorously argued that a new crossing corridor would devastate their communities.
The cost of a new bridge has been estimated at between $70 million and $180 million, with a total project cost of $500 million including road construction.
Taylor said the latter figure is a “ballpark number” and it’s premature to talk about the final price tag because mitigation measures might drive costs up. “I don’t think the prices will go down,” he said. “They’ll probably go up.”
Those who want to participate in the consultations must register in advance at the project website, www.ncrcrossing.ca.
dbutler@ottawacitizen.com