2. Cost Estimate for Feasibility study to estimate the impact of permanently reducing the number of lanes on King Edward Avenue from 6 to 4

CoÛT ESTIMATIF D’UNE ÉTUDE VISANT À ÉVALUER L’INCIDENCE DE LA RÉDUCTION PERMANENTE DU NOMBRE DE VOIES SUR L’AVENUE King-Edward, POUR LE FAIRE PASSER DE 6 À 4.

Committee recommendation as amended

That Council receive this report for information and approve that, during the actual construction process which has reduced the number of lanes on King Edward Avenue from six to four, a feasibility study be undertaken to determine the impact of permanently reducing the Avenue to four lanes, and be completed while the lanes are reduced; and that the cost come from General Reserves at not more than $125,000.

Recommandation modifiÉe dU ComitÉ

Que le Conseil municipal reçoive ce rapport à titre d’information et approuve la réalisation et l’achèvement, pendant que l’avenue King-Edward, qui compte habituellement six voies, est réduite à quatre voies dans le cadre des travaux de réaménagement en cours, d’une étude de faisabilité qui sera financée à hauteur de 125 000 $ à même le fonds de réserve général de la Ville, pour déterminer l’incidence qu’aurait la réduction permanente de l’avenue à quatre voies.

Documentation

1. Deputy City Manager, Public Works and Services report dated 9 August 2007 (ACS2007-PWS-INF-0010)

2. Extract of the Draft Minutes 12, Transportation Committee, 3 October 2007

Report to/Rapport au :

Transportation Committee

Comité des transports

and Council/et au Conseil

9 August 2007 / le 9 août 2007

Submitted by/Soumis par : R.G. Hewitt,

Deputy City Manager/Directeur municipal adjoint,

Public Works and Services/Services et Travaux publics 

Contact Person/Personne ressource : W.R. Newell, P. Eng., Director/Directeur

Infrastructure Services/Services d’infrastructure

613-580-2424 x16002, Wayne. Newell@ottawa.ca

Rideau-Vanier (12)

Ref N°: ACS2007-PWS-INF-0010

SUBJECT:	Cost Estimate for Feasibility study to estimate the impact of permanently reducing the number of lanes on King Edward Avenue from 6 to 4.
OBJET :	CoÛT ESTIMATIF D’UNE ÉTUDE VISANT À ÉVALUER L’INCIDENCE DE LA RÉDUCTION PERMANENTE DU NOMBRE DE VOIES SUR L’AVENUE King-Edward, POUR LE FAIRE PASSER DE 6 À 4.

REPORT RECOMMENDATION

That the Transportation Committee and Council receive this report for information.

RECOMMANDATION DU RAPPORT

Que le Comité des transports et le Conseil municipal prennent connaissance du présent rapport.

BACKGROUND

The Environmental Study Report (ESR) for the King Edward Avenue Renewal project, dated September 2002, evaluated different roadway cross-section options including four-lanes and six-lanes. The conclusion of this evaluation was that a six-lane cross-section is required until measures are in place to significantly reduce traffic volumes on King Edward Avenue, particularly the volume of truck traffic. Possible measures to reduce traffic volumes, as identified in the ESR, included the construction of a new inter-provincial bridge.

Construction of the King Edward Avenue Renewal project commenced in 2005. Phase 1 construction has been completed and includes a new overpass south of Macdonald-Cartier Bridge. Phase 2 construction commenced in 2006 and includes reconstruction of King Edward Avenue between Macdonald-Cartier Bridge and St. Patrick Street to a six-lane cross-section. Construction is scheduled to be completed in December 2007. Phase 3 is currently at a final design stage and includes the reconstruction of King Edward Avenue between St. Patrick Street and Besserer Street to a six-lane cross-section. The design and construction of King Edward allows for conversion to a four-lane cross-section in the future.

Report ACS2007-CCS-TRC-002 titled "Pedestrian Crosswalk at the Intersection of King Edward Avenue and Cathcart Street", was considered at the Transportation Committee meeting of 16 May 2007. That report had two recommendations which were carried as amended. The second recommendation was:

"That the following recommendation be referred to staff for cost estimates:

That during the actual construction process, which has reduced the number of lanes on King Edward from 6 to 4, a feasibility study be undertaken to estimate the impact of permanently reducing the Avenue to four lanes."

City Council at its meeting on 13 June 2007 asked that the request for a feasibility study be refered to staff for a cost estimate on the understanding that no funds existed in the project for this work. This report provides those cost estimates.

DISCUSSION

A feasibility study to estimate the impact of permanently reducing King Edward Avenue to four lanes would require extensive data collection and analysis to properly assess the network-wide operational impacts resulting from redistribution of traffic from the Macdonald-Cartier Bridge corridor. The study cannot be based simply on traffic counts taken along King Edward Avenue during the period while construction activities have temporarily reduced it to four lanes; rather, it must reflect the network-wide impacts resulting from lane reductions on a permanent basis. This not only requires traffic counts along King Edward and parallel routes such as Dalhousie and Sussex, that serve the catchment area leading to and from the Macdonald-Cartier Bridge, but also counts at key signalized intersections along arterials that serve the catchment areas of the four other inter-provincial bridges.

The feasibility study must also consider the network-wide impacts on transit. A transit ridership study would be required and passenger trips analyzed at each river crossing to be able to compare scenarios where King Edward is permanently reduced to four lanes versus the current temporary arrangement of four lanes north of Murray Street only.

All analysis pertaining to redistribution, both in terms of vehicular flows and transit ridership, must attempt to rationalize its validity given the subjective relationship that exists between data collected during temporary construction conditions, versus which would ultimately prevail following establishment of permanent conditions once traffic patterns stabilize.

An addendum to the ESR would be required if further consideration of reduction to four lanes is to be pursued prior to implementation of the measures to reduce traffic and truck volumes on King Edward Avenue. The amount of effort required to prepare this addendum is dependant upon the extent of public participation required to address concerns raised during the study.

Based on this the preliminary estimated costs to undertake the additional work is as follows:

Feasibility Study $125,000

Addendum to ESR (if required) $150,000

TOTAL $275,000

CONSULTATION

The feasibility study will involve taking traffic counts and carrying out a traffic analysis based upon those counts. Public consultation is not required to determine the estimated cost of this feasibility study.

If there is to be further consideration of permanently reducing King Edward Avenue to four lanes subsequent to completion of a feasibility study, then an addendum to the ESR would be required. Public consultation would be required as a component of the addendum.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

The requested cost estimates to undertake the feasibility study are indicated in the body of this report. As indicated in the previous report (Ref No. ACS2007-CCS-TRC-0002) funds are not currently available to complete this work.

COST ESTIMATE FOR FEASIBILITY STUDY TO ESTIMATE THE IMPACT OF PERMANENTLY REDUCING THE NUMBER OF LANES ON KING EDWARD AVENUE FROM 6 TO 4

COÛT ESTIMATIF D’UNE ÉTUDE VISANT À ÉVALUER L’INCIDENCE DE LA RÉDUCTION PERMANENTE DU NOMBRE DE VOIES SUR L’AVENUE KING-EDWARD, POUR LE FAIRE PASSER DE 6 À 4

ACS2007-PWS-INF-0010 RIDEAU-VANIER (12)

The following Public Works and Services (PWS) Staff were present to answer questions on this matter:

§ Richard Hewitt, Deputy City Manager

§ Michael Flainek, Director of Traffic and Parking Operations

§ Wayne Newell, Director, Infrastructure Services

§ Bruce Mason, A/Manager, Construction Services West, Infrastructure Services

§ Doug Bowron, A/Manager, Safety and Traffic Services, Traffic and Parking Operations

The Committee heard from the following delegations:

Michel Vallée, a resident of King Edward Avenue, Chair of the King Edward Avenue Task Force and Vice-President of the Lowertown Community Association expressed support for the feasibility study on the behalf of the aforementioned groups, but noted the groups feel the study could be done at a lesser cost than anticipated. The groups also feel a sufficient amount of data has been accumulated over the years to mitigate the need for an addendum study to the Environmental Study Report that was carried out in 2002. He pointed out that a pilot project has already occurred given the fact that King Edward has been reduced to four lanes on each side for almost a year now, without major difficulty, due to area construction.

In response to questions from Acting Chair Leadman and Councillors Bédard, Legendre and Doucet based on the delegation’s remarks, staff provided the following comments:

· Staff has reviewed the matter again and has received a second opinion from consultants that the study would cost in the order of $75,000-125,000 because it is a significant undertaking to review the impacts of the four other bridges as well as this one.

· The road is not down to four lanes at present throughout the entire corridor, nor will it be at any time in the construction phase. Lane changes are occurring frequently during the construction process and this results in significant alterations to the traffic patterns throughout that corridor.

· Whether to conduct the traffic study now or in the future, staff would not emulate the conditions that exist today. Staff would be modelling the impact of a reduction to four lanes throughout the entire corridor, not just one portion of it. Staff would be carrying out a significant review during the study of the transit options that would be available with a reduction to four lanes, because STO currently uses this corridor as an integral part of their network to get buses into Ottawa’s core at certain time points.

· Staff intends to reduce from six to four lanes of traffic during Phase 3 of the project, the reconstruction of King Edward Avenue between St. Patrick Street and Besserer Street to enable the work to be done.

· Data would be collected as part of the traffic study, if so directed by Council, regarding the impact of the lane reductions at St. Patrick and King Edward for traffic heading south from across the river. If staff are not directed to conduct the study at this time but Committee and Council still wishes staff to collect that data, a motion to that effect would be required.

· STO has been using the sixth lane of traffic on King Edward, in the afternoon peak, as a stacking area for its buses that go to King Edward and Rideau. If the road were permanently reduced to four lanes, that transit priority would be eliminated and STO would be put into two of the four lanes of traffic, resulting in significant delays.

· It is staff’s understanding that STO is developing an alternate queuing or stacking area for their buses on their side of the river, but how they will then get from that point to King Edward and Rideau has yet to be determined. Staff is looking at various options, including the potential to create a transit-only lane in the afternoon peak hours to allow them to get to that time point effectively, but nothing has been decided yet.

Marc Aubin, King Edward Task Force stated that the Task Force has conducted a preliminary study of the King Edward traffic data collected by the City of Ottawa, both before and after the street was reduced to four lanes. They also collected data on all the Interprovincial bridges from before and after the street was reduced to four lanes. Their analysis perceived an eight to ten per cent reduction in traffic on both King Edward Avenue and the Macdonald-Cartier Bridge. They were concerned that perhaps this traffic might be using other bridges, spreading into other wards and causing traffic problems in other areas of the downtown, so they looked at the traffic crossing from all of the interprovincial bridges in the downtown area and saw there was a slight decrease of between two and six per cent on all of the other downtown bridges as well. He noted there might be several contributing factors to these numbers. For instance, some people may be taking the bus, others may still be driving in to work but outside peak hours, and some people may even be eliminating trips that are no longer necessary. The group feels that the current lane reductions due to construction are essentially a pilot study, and that since a great deal of data already exists, all that is really needed is to do is get a consultant to compile and review that data and explain the findings. Mr. Aubin also submitted written correspondence prior to the meeting, a copy of which is held on file with the City Clerk.

Acting Chair Leadman inquired as to who had worked on the King Edward Task Force’s traffic report, which Mr. Aubin had included in his written correspondence to the Committee. Mr. Aubin informed that he was one of the primary authors of the document and that the Task Force is a community group, not publicly funded, and as such the report is not an official document. Councillor Leadman commented that the document was well presented.

David Jeanes stated that he had participated at the public open houses for the King Edward Corridor and was invited to speak to the community association, who in turn asked him to offer his opinions to the Transportation Committee on this matter. To that end, Mr. Jeanes commented that the study is important and it is not just about whether cars are going to shift to other routes, but other things can happen. People can stay on the same route but at other times, people can carpool, people can use transit. He noted that much of the recent experience shows that when major urban routes are reduced in capacity, cars do not overflow onto other routes. He felt the study should definitely proceed and should be linked to the Interprovincial Transit Study. He acknowledged that King Edward Avenue may or may not be considered for incorporation into the Terms of Reference of the Interprovincial Transit study, but it is important to link them because one of the options with reducing King Edward to four lanes is to convert two of the lanes on the Macdonald-Cartier Bridge to High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) bus lanes. That would be an incentive to increase the number of occupants per vehicle on King Edward, therefore maintaining the road’s capacity without having to have the same number of cars. Such a project, he noted, would have to be closely coordinated with the STO and the National Capital Commission. He also commented that the public really does not have a view on many of the things that are currently happening with respect to interprovincial transit. He asked Committee to ensure that the study is comprehensive to include other issues going through that corridor.

The Committee also received the following correspondence, copy of which are on file with the City Clerk:

1. Letter from Christine Hanson received on 28 September 2007.

2. E-Mail from Wylie Stewart received on 28 September 2007.

3. E-Mail from Nicolas Todd received on 28 September 2007.

4. E-Mail from Marcia Almey received on 29 September 2007 adding her comments to Mr. Todd’s e-mail.

5. E-Mail from Sarah Bonesteel and Dominique Boulais received on 29 September 2007.

6. E-Mail from Han Luu received on 29 September 2007.

7. Letter from Liz MacKenzie received on 1 October 2007.

8. Letter from the former Governor General, the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson dated 19 July 2007 addressed to Marc Aubin.

9. E-Mail received 1 October 2007 from David Milman, Cathcart Street, East of King Edward.

10. E-Mail received 1 October 2007 from John Verbaas, Resident, Northwest Sandy Hill, Transportation Representative, Action Sandy Hill.

11. E-Mail received 1 October 2007 from Marc Aubin forwarding a letter signed by the presidents of three associations as well as 14 other members of the community.

12. E-Mail received 1 October 2007 addressed to Mayor Larry O’Brien from Tony Patterson, Editor and CEO, National Capital SCAN.

13. E-Mail received 2 October 2007 from Cam Robertson, Chair, City Centre Coalition.

14. E-Mail received 2 October 2007 from Jodi Brown and Anthony Carter of Rockwood Street, asking that their written submission be distributed at the meeting.

15. E-Mail received 2 October 2007 from Angela Rickman, President, Lowertown Community Association.

16. E-Mail received 3 October 2007 from Barbara Myers.

17. E-Mail received 3 October 2007 from David Gladstone

Councillor Bédard gave a brief history on this report and asked Committee to support the following motion that he would be bringing forward - “That, during the actual construction process which has reduced the number of lanes on King Edward Avenue from six to four, a feasibility study be undertaken to determine the impact of permanently reducing the Avenue to four lanes, and that the cost come from General Reserves and be completed while the lanes are reduced.”

Councillor Bloess asked for a staff comment regarding the funding required to carry out the feasibility study. Mr. Hewitt responded that the funding would not be available within the Traffic and Parking Operations Budget and that there is an option to redirect it to the King Edward Avenue Project, to be considered as another pressure on contingency funding.

Following debate on the issue, the Committee voted on the following motion:

Moved by Councillor G. Bédard:

That, during the actual construction process which has reduced the number of lanes on King Edward Avenue from six to four, a feasibility study be undertaken to determine the impact of permanently reducing the Avenue to four lanes, and be completed while the lanes are reduced; and that the cost come from General Reserves at not more than $125,000.

CARRIED

Councillor R. Bloess dissented.

The Committee then considered the report recommendation as amended by the foregoing motion.

That the Transportation Committee and Council receive this report for information and approve that during the actual construction process which has reduced the number of lanes on King Edward from 6 to 4, a feasibility study be undertaken to determine the impact of permanently reducing the avenue to four lanes and that the cost come from General Reserves and be completed while the lanes are reduced, at no more than $125,000.

CARRIED, as amended