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Indecision is slowing plans to build a bridge over the Ottawa River, says the president of the National Capital Commission, and it’s time to get moving before delays threaten the project’s completion.
“I think the message getting through to the funding partners is that people are tired of hearing about this issue, and they want to see something happen,” Marie Lemay told the Citizen’s editorial board Tuesday.
“I’ve said a couple of times, if we don’t get it this time, I don’t think we’re going to get a bridge.”
The NCC has proposed to build a bridge at Kettle Island, north of the Aviation Parkway. The City of Ottawa and the Quebec and Ontario governments have asked the NCC to study other possible routes as well.
Tuesday, Ms. Lemay acknowledged that the provinces have a role in deciding how many corridors to study, since they will share in paying for the $500-million project. But she also spoke of the need to make a decision. “As you know, construction costs are not getting less, so we really need to get moving,” she said.
All the trouble over bridged waters to date — all the study and money and angst — that’s only Phase 1 of the environmental assessment (EA), she said.
It lays the groundwork for a second phase, which she calls “the real environmental assessment… the last step before the bridge is built, the real federal EA.”
The NCC would spend three years and $4 million studying one corridor alone — the proposed crossing at Kettle Island, preferred by the NCC’s consultants. Or it would spend $9 million and an extra year to throw in two more options farther east.
The second-ranked route, crossing at Lower Duck Island and going to Boulevard Lorrain in Gatineau, would require at least 79 expropriations in Quebec. The third route would also cross at Lower Duck Island but go toward the Gatineau Airport.
Quebec wants three corridors studied; so does Ontario, and it also wants the study to cover the impact on the communities, transit and economics.
The NCC hasn’t agreed to study all three yet, but its board will discuss the idea.
The whole bridge would cost $500 million, counting everything from Highway 417 to Autoroute 50.
The Kettle Island bridge would be expected to divert some cars and 40 per cent of the trucks currently using King Edward Avenue, Ms. Lemay said — some 1,700 a day, especially the 18-wheelers travelling long distances. The other corridors would divert fewer trucks, she said.
The NCC has received about 1,800 comments from the public so far, she said.
The objections include valid points, she said, “but the consultant feels there are ways we can address this. So we need to get to that phase,” the second phase of the EA.
She said it would be “absolutely inappropriate” not to complete the environmental assessment. “You have to go through that next step to get the answers.”
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