Document
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MINISTRY
OF TRANSPORTATION PRESENTATION ON HIGHWAY 417 - BRIDGE REPLACEMENT AT cyrville
road
PRÉSENTATION DU MINISTÈRE DES TRANSPORTS
CONCERNANT L’AUTOROUTE 417 - remplacement du pont au chemin Cyrville
Verbal Presentation / Présentation Orale
Frank Vanderlaan, Senior Project Engineer,
MTO (Eastern Region) and Jim Scale, Design
Consultant, AECOM gave a detailed presentation on the item. Also in attendance was Scott Bisson of
AECOM. The more salient points
highlighted were as follows:
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The project limits will be the transitway to the north (southern limit of
existing bridge) to about 100 m south of Labrie Avenue
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The MTO will construct the ultimate four-lane Cyrville Road bridge deck,
which includes provisions for a median island, sidewalks and bike
lanes/shoulders, plus two lanes in each direction; approximately 30% of this
cost will be funded by the City
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The bridge replacement will accommodate the proposed future Highway 417
improvements, including an independent ramp from Ottawa Road 174 to St. Laurent
Boulevard;
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This construction will:
·
Address the deteriorated condition of the existing structure
·
Support future widening on Highway 417 and Cyrville Road
·
Eliminate the need for future traffic and community impacts associated
with the ultimate widening of that bridge if it was replaced with its’ existing
width today
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It is recommended that Cyrville Road be closed at the Highway 417 for up
to 10 months in order to accommodate the replacement of the bridge for the
following reasons:
·
It is more cost-effective rather than doing a staged construction
·
It will minimize cumulative traffic impacts on Cyrville and adjacent
roadways over the duration of construction
·
It will improve safety for construction workers and motorists by
eliminating traffic through the confined work zone
·
It will improve construction efficiency and will reduce the overall
construction duration, i.e., a single year vs. a two-year construction schedule
if only partially closed; reduced costs
-
Traffic; measures will need to be put in place to address the proximity
and protection of the City’s watermain located in front of the Cyrville Road
south abutment, below the existing Highway 417 outside eastbound traffic lane
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As part of this work, the MTO looked at compatibility with other
provincial and city projects currently underway, including: ongoing MTO Highway 417 improvements;
Interprovincial Crossing Study; the Downtown Ottawa Transit Tunnel; and,
operational improvements to Cyrville and Ottawa Road 174
-
Detour strategies will be put in place to address the short term closure
of Highway 417 and the long term closure of Cyrville Road
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Access to residents and businesses in the vicinity of the work zone will
be maintained at all times and shuttle service will be provided during the full
closure of Cyrville Road to transport pedestrians; details are currently being
developed with staff
-
There will be a public open house on May 12 at the Earl Armstrong Arena;
notifications have been distributed
-
Construction will commence in February 2011 and is anticipated to be
complete by October/November 2011.
A copy of their PowerPoint
Presentation is held on file.
The Chair noted that the date for their
public information centre coincides with a City Council date and she wondered
if the MTO had worked with the ward councillor when determining this date. Mr. Scale advised that they had presented the
date to staff, but had not discussed it with Councillor Bellemare. The Chair asked that the MTO consider
communicating with the ward councillor for any future meetings, to ensure they
are coordinated without additional scheduling conflict.
Councillor Bellemare was concerned about the
proposed closure of the Queensway and Cyrville Road during the bridge
replacement period and he urged provincial officials to work with staff to
develop effective solutions to ensure mobility and public safety during this
time. While he understood the MTO wanted
to avoid having to do the bridge replacement during peak hours in order to
allow capacity, he was seeking a guarantee that it would maintain all day lane
capacity instead of just during rush hour.
He wondered if the province could undertake to do that, even if it means
building temporary lanes to maintain traffic capacity at the split.
Mr. Vanderlaan explained that the Ministry is
very aware of the impacts that any lane closures have on traffic and would do
everything possible to minimize that impact.
He explained that they have stringent guidelines their contractor has to
follow with respect to the exact times they are able to close a lane to
undertake work. This construction
project and the full closure of the highway will occur during the weekend
night-time closure so the overall impact can be mitigated. He added that the work to be done that
requires lane closures on the Queensway are fairly minor and that once the
bridge has been removed, there will have to be work done on the pier within the
median, which will not impact traffic.
Councillor Bellemare was quite concerned that
one of the slides in the MTO presentation referred to the long term closure of
Highway 417. Mr. Vanderlaan clarified
that that was an error and advised that the slide should have reflected the
long term closure of Cyrville Road,
not Highway 417. In response to a
question posed by the councillor with regards to the impact this closure will have,
he indicated that it will be discussed as part of the detour strategy before
its long term full closure. Traffic will
be detoured on other major arterials and motorists familiar with the area will
likely go on the Queensway to avoid the disruption caused by the Cyrville Road
closure.
With regards to whether or not the MTO have
looked at adding an extra lane, he explained that the intent is to widen the
Queensway but in order to do that they need to lengthen the bridge. The councillor was not reassured because any
reduction in lanes would be equivalent to a reduction in capacity and therefore
gridlock. He maintained that that needs
to be seriously looked at and did not believe the proposed detour strategy is
sufficient.
Councillor Bellemare asked if access to the
Cyrville Transitway Station would continue or whether it would be entirely
suspended during construction. Mr. Scale
advised that the southerly access would be closed, but a shuttle service would
be provided to bypass the work zone.
Details are currently being worked out with OC Transpo. He explained that access to that Station from
the north would be maintained and the station will be open and fully
functioning.
Councillor Bellemare was concerned about the
impact the closure of Cyrville Road would have on businesses and asked if the
province was still soliciting feedback to ascertain whether or not the MTO
might elect to choose the two-year option which, while being longer, would at
least retain some use of that roadway.
Mr. Vanderlaan indicated that they were open to suggestions in any
consultation with the public and part of the public open house next week would
be to get feedback from those business owners.
He pointed out that as well as being a cost saving standpoint, the
actual traffic impacts between the two alternatives (nine months vs. two years)
are similar in that to get in and out as much as possible has a reduced impact
when comparing the overall staging, which involves heavy traffic congestion on
Cyrville Road for an extended period of time.
Mr. Scale added that as far as the daily
delays to the system are concerned, there would be approximately 4-5% increase
in total delay for the full closure as compared to the single lane
closure. He offered that the advantage
is the duration, so when compared to the cumulative delay over a two-year
period it would be twice the delay overall to the local network. It is not only impacting Cyrville Road, but
there is also some residual impact to the adjacent roadway network. Mr. Scale further noted that that is part of
the rationale why the MTO want to get in and get out. It is also compatible with future
improvements on Highway 417, which would be delayed by an additional year if
the longer-term construction period was selected. The Ministry is also aware of the City’s
plans to expand the transitway and the shorter time period would coordinate
with that work as well. He believed the
cumulative delay, even with the single lane alternating closure, would incur
about a 5 minute delay through the work zone.
It is still a fairly significant impact to traffic on Cyrville Road, but
overall, they feel that is the better scenario and minimizes impact not only to
Cyrville Road but also the adjacent network.
Councillor Bellemare referred to their proposal
for a rapid demolition of the Cyrville Road bridge during the nine month
period, which would occur over the weekend during the night. He had some concerns about noise therefore,
and wanted to ensure this work would not impact residents when they are trying
sleep. At the same time, he wanted to
ensure the MTO is taking advantage of the daytime in order to reduce the total
length of construction on this bridge replacement. Mr. Scale explained that they would be
seeking a noise by-law exemption; there will be some work required for the
demolition of the bridge (probably between 11:00 p.m. Saturday until 6:00 a.m.
the next morning). They envision that
most of the other work required will be done during the day. He added that the only work that really
requires the scheduling of traffic on Highway 417 is for the median pier and at
that point, the contractor will have a fairly good window during the afternoon
and may elect to do some work later in the evening in order to expedite.
As a result of the complete closure of
Cyrville Road, Councillor Bellemare inquired if staff anticipated any emergency
response delays and John Manconi, General Manager of Public Works advised that
staff is mobilizing the Traffic Incident Management Group which is representative
of all emergency services and all departments in the organization. The group will also be mobilized when the
project is about to commence so everyone is connected and integrated, including
OC Transpo.
When asked by the councillor if maintaining
all day lane capacity on the Queensway is essential and feasible, Mr. Manconi
could not speak to the feasibility of it, but understood there would be no lane
reductions save and except some mobilization and de-mobilization. He understood in the briefings he has
received that there is a lot of room in the centre lanes for the pier and
suggested that if that is critical to the councillor, a Motion or comment can
be made during the consultation process.
Between the shorter or longer term closure of Cyrville Road, Mr. Manconi
initially offered that his first preference would be the overnight replacement,
but he recognized that that is not feasible, and he acknowledged that the MTO
and their teams have pushed that very hard in terms of looking at that. He explained that he has seen the vigour that
has been put to this in terms of options and he liked the fact it is a
date-specific project that gives the contractor the incentive to finish. He believed the MTO were going down the right
path and the public consultation is critical and so far staff has liked
everything they have seen and there has been very receptive dialogue on the
options and scenarios. He looked to the
Manager of Transit Service Design (Pat Scrimgeour) to ensure he was comfortable
in terms of some of the strategies that have been put forward for transit
users, but believed the public meetings would flush out some of those issues
the councillor has raised.
With respect to the shuttle service to be
provided, Mr. Scrimgeour explained that it would loop through that
neighbourhood connecting the people who now walk to Cyrville Station and
carrying them to St. Laurent Station instead.
While the details still have to be worked out, the expectation is that
this would run all day long approximately every 20 minutes. He recognized this option is not as good as
the walk-in connection that currently exists, but it is fairly frequent and he
anticipated transit users would schedule their time accordingly. He agreed to send the councillor the details
of that shuttle service route.
Councillor Bloess inquired of the overall
improvements being recommended to Highway 417 and Mr. Vanderlaan explained that
these will be a multi-year project as part of the Southern Ontario Highways
Program. The councillor noted that the
chronology of those improvements (starting with the Cyrville Road bridge
replacement) will be over many years and there will be impacts felt over the
long run. He preferred that a whole
number of things happen at the same time as quickly as possible. With regards to this particular project and
the impact it will have on businesses, he posited that the timeframe was simply
unacceptable and he maintained that there must be a better way of providing
both the capacity on the Highway as well as for the use of the Cyrville Road
bridge in a more expeditious way. Mr.
Vanderlaan recognized that rapid bridge replacements do go well and he would be
the first to recommend doing that option on this bridge. Unfortunately, this is a different bridge and
the span is being lengthened, so in order to accommodate the extra span there
is a need to close Cyrville Road.
The councillor noted there was $5M in Works
in Progress in relation to this to improve Cyrville Road (Project 905024) and
he asked staff to explain what will be done with that because there is another
bridge over Highway 417 and the City will have to go through the same process
twice. Valerie Bouillant, Senior Project
Engineer indicated that this funding was initially approved in the 2009 budget
and reapproved in the 2010 budget. The
funding is was mainly for the cost-sharing for this project because the City
has agreed to have a new bridge rebuilt to accommodate the future widening of
Cyrville Road. She confirmed that the
funding will not be put towards the other crossing of Highway 417 further along
Cyrville Road.
Councillor Bloess also commented on the
preliminary work done to have cycling connections along Cyrville Road and over
Highway 417. Given that development has
been allowed to occur, he wondered if the City had given up the right-of-way
which could have been used for a future cycling facility? Ms. Bouillant indicated she could get back to
the councillor about this, but offered that the proposed bridge overpass will
allow for cycling lanes.
When asked when the other bridge at Cyrville
Road and the Queensway (situated further south) would be replaced, Mr.
Vanderlaan explained that that bridge was constructed much later than the one
being discussed today and the future work (which is many years out) would
probably involve rehabilitation as opposed to actual replacement. Councillor Bloess was concerned about taking
a piecemeal approach to the work that has to be done. He referred again to the southerly portion of
Cyrville where it crosses Highway 417, noting that it is narrow and is a rural
standard. He commented that this is the
cycling alternative to trying to get over the highway on Innes Road. Ms. Boulliant explained that the widening of
Cyrville Road just immediately south of the proposed MTO bridge reconstruction
is not currently part of the Transportation Master Plan (TMP), last updated in
2008. It was identified just beyond the
threshold for the current planning horizon of 2031 and the next opportunity
therefore would be when the TMP is updated again in 2013.
Following on the latter discussion,
Councillor Legendre asked on what basis the City would partner with the
province to make the bridge wider? Ms.
Bouillant explained that because of the life expectancy of the proposed bridge
overpass (50+ years) it was viewed as a good investment to have the bridge deck
to the ultimate configuration of four-lanes now, because the need for widening
Cyrville Road immediately south of the bridge overpass is at the threshold
(2031). Based on this information
therefore, the councillor did not believe staff had permission today from this
Council to do that. John Moser, General
Manager of Planning and Growth Management offered that the $5M was approved by
Council as part of the 2008 budget and again in 2009. The councillor interjected however, that it
was not in the TMP and therefore wondered why those dollars would have been
approved.
Following on the comments made by staff with
regards to the shuttle service to be provided, Councillor Legendre wondered when
staff intended to advise the Committee about the circuit and whether or not it
is adequate. Mr. Scrimgeour confirmed
that OC Transpo staff have worked out an initial concept of what that route
would be and this had been discussed in general details with the ward
councillor. He confirmed that as they
learn more about the MTO’s construction plans and how they plan to stage their
work, staff would be able to develop the particulars of the route more
precisely and convey that information to the ward councillor and any others
interested. When asked about the
20-minute frequency for the shuttle, Mr. Scrimgeour acknowledged that it does
increase people’s travel time because it puts an additional transfer and a wait
into the trip that does not currently exist.
Given that the MTO is paying for the shuttle, Councillor Legendre
suggested staff could argue the need for better service with an additional
shuttle if required. Mr. Scrimgeour
agreed this could be discussed with the MTO if that is the will of the Committee
through recommendation to Council. The
councillor indicated he would seek the guidance of the ward councillor in this
regard.
Following on a previous point with regards to
costs, Councillor Desroches believed the all-in costs of this project would include
the incremental transit costs required in order to accommodate residents. He felt that any resources the City would
have to engage whether it is the police for traffic or any signs needed for
detours, et cetera, would include a comprehensive public relations and public
information tool at the City’s disposal, and which would be covered by the
province. Mr. Manconi indicated that the
MTO have been very supportive of all those costs and are paying for upgrades to
the City’s camera system for mobility logistics, signage, et cetera.
Councillor Jellett was concerned about the
downstream effects on OR 174 during construction of the bridge. He asked how many days of lane reductions
there would be at the split and at OR 174.
Mr. Scale advised that the lane closures on Ottawa Road 174 are strictly
for construction of the median pier and that all the work on the abutments and
the overhead spans can be done without impacting that roadway. At this time, he estimated one or two months
impact of having one lane closed.
When asked by the councillor what staff were
doing to mitigate the traffic problems that will occur every morning as a
result of this (i.e., back-ups all the way to Rockland), Mr. Manconi
clarified that the lane closures would occur during off-peak periods and
understood that the impacts to OR 174 would be minimal. Mr. Scale confirmed this, adding that the
actual closure will be on the median lane westbound on Highway 417 so there
will in effect be two lanes on OR 174 being maintained, which will merge with a
single lane from Highway 417, which is currently two lanes. The councillor remarked that if there is a
reduction of those lanes on Highway 417, it will slow traffic down, thereby
impacting the two lanes from OR 174 merging onto the highway. Mr. Scale agreed there would be some impact,
but posited that the actual conversion would happen before the two actually
converge; therefore, that reduction would primarily be on Highway 417 itself. He recognized there would be some impact as
people are passing through, but confirmed there would be no lane closures
envisioned for OR 174.
Councillor Jellett then referenced the work
the City is doing to build a third lane from Blair Road to the split westbound
and if that would have any impact on OR 174.
Greg Kent, Manager, Engineering Technical Services advised that there
would be some construction impacts, but the work would be minimal and would be
done during off-peak periods as much as possible. The councillor wanted to ensure that the EA
work for the third lane from Montreal Road to Jeanne d’Arc would be done at the
same time the MTO is expending the capacity on their section. Mr. Moser confirmed this would be the case.
Following on the aforementioned comments
about the third lane, Councillor Bloess wanted to know if staff had looked at
different ways of accommodating the backed up traffic that would occur. With respect to the westbound lane from Blair
to OR 174 for example, he wondered if any thought was given to hook that into
the Aviation Parkway in order to relieve some of the pressure during
construction. Mr. Manconi indicated that
while this was not something staff had thought about, they would give it some
consideration to see whether or not it could be feasible.
Councillor Bloess referred to the extension
of Hunt Club Road to Highway 417 and the fact the City is waiting for the
province to commit funding to build the interchange. He wondered if there was money in the
provincial budget this year that could accelerate that link, which would in
turn provide some relief during the closure of Cyrville Road. Mr. Vanderlaan was unable to comment on
that particular project, but explained that he would get back to the councillor
with the appropriate contact person who could speak to that. The councillor explained that the reason he
was bringing that up was because people will try to avoid the bottleneck as
they head up Highway 417 and given the already congested ramp at Walkley, which
will only get worse, there is a need for that interchange to provide relief and
also to provide a direct link to the industrial and business parks.
Following on the councillor’s remarks re the
Hunt Club Road interchange, Nancy Schepers, Deputy City Manager, Infrastructure
Services and Community Sustainability advised that the City is proceeding with
the extension under the Stimulus Funds and the design of the interchange is
underway and should be finished for potentially award of a contract in
2011. She confirmed staff are in active
discussions with the MTO and there is a 50/50 cost sharing, as was stipulated
as part of the City’s application under the Stimulus Funds. She added that staff is working with the MTO
to obtain confirmation of their funding commitment for the interchange.
Questions arose on what contact information
would be listed on the MTO signage during the Cyrville Road bridge replacement
and Mr. Vanderlaan indicated that the phone number would be that of the
contractor administrator, who would then direct people to the appropriate
contact at the MTO. Should councillors
receive any complaints or questions, they should be directed to the MTO.
The Chair asked that staff consider it
direction from this Committee that the MTO will have their phone numbers on the
signage and they are responsible for making that information clear. She wanted to ensure that staff monitor those
signs when they are installed.
Councillor Legendre referred to the MTO slide
presentation and the details that referred to the third span accommodating an
independent OR 174 to the St. Laurent ramp.
He knew that the northbound ramp at St. Laurent is very close to the
split, which has always been a problem, and asked if what is proposed will
accommodate that extra lane?
Mr. Vanderlaan explained that the previous project that was done for
the overall Queensway eliminates the move from Highway 417 westbound to St.
Laurent and in place of that, there will be a ramp from OR 174 to St. Laurent;
they will eliminate the off-ramp and provide another one. He agreed to provide the councillor with
additional information on that particular aspect of the project.
Councillor Legendre also referred to the link
between what is proposed in the MTO’s presentation and the Interprovincial
Crossing Study and Mr. Scale explained that originally, the proposed change to
Highway 417 was to eliminate the existing weave westbound as motorists try to
exit at St. Laurent. Today there are
three through lanes under St. Laurent Boulevard and as part of the future
expansion there will be four lanes, which will increase the weaving
distance. To avoid that, the MTO propose
to have a ramp come off of OR 174 in the proximity of the Aviation inner loop
ramp, that will be independent of OR 174 as it passes under Cyrville and will
go under the Cyrville Road third span and will access St. Laurent Boulevard,
the existing ramp further on. But there
will be no access from Highway 417 westbound to St. Laurent Boulevard. As part of the proposed interprovincial work,
that St. Laurent exit ramp would actually be eliminated and replaced with an
on-ramp from the Aviation Parkway onto 417 westbound. The MTO wanted to ensure accommodation of
movement with the Highway 417 changes, as well as leaving it open to
implementing the interprovincial border crossing recommendations. Mr. Vanderlaan added that all they were doing
with the third span was keeping the options open and not precluding anything
that may arise as a result of the interprovincial bridge study.
With regards to the DOTT (Downtown Ottawa
Transit Tunnel), Councillor Legendre noted that the construction timing would
be coordinated with DOTT improvements and in view of the fact the City has to
change the transitway to rail, the buses will have to come off the transitway
in this area and move onto the Queensway.
He wondered how this coordination was going to work. Dennis Gratton, A/Manager, Planning explained
that the planning and construction program for the Cyrville Bridge will be well
ahead of the DOTT construction program for this portion of the transitway
system when it is being converted to light rail. Therefore, their work should be complete by
the time the City is in the conversion process and there will be no
interference.
In addition to the comments made previously
about the MTO scheduling their public information centre on the same date as a
Council meeting, Councillor Legendre expressed disdain for the MTO making such
a scheduling conflict as he believed it reflects a lack of respect to Committee
and Council.
Councillor Bellemare reiterated the critical
need to maintain capacity on the Queensway during the bridge replacement and
felt the Committee should support a Motion that would seek to request that the
province do everything it can to maintain lane capacity. He proposed that the Committee recommend that
Council urge the Province to maintain all-day lane capacity in both
directions on the Queensway during the reconstruction. Councillor Legendre indicated he would be
putting that Motion forward on behalf of the ward councillor. Mr.
Manconi indicated he was fully supportive of the Motion.
Councillor Bellemare acknowledged the
comments made about the need to have a widened Cyrville Road Bridge. He argued that it is critical given that it
will be a 75-year structure and from a cost perspective it makes more sense to
ensure a widened deck to accommodate four lanes, cycling lanes in both
directions and sidewalks at this point in time.
Cyrville Road will be expanded to four lanes in the future and therefore
it is necessary to widen the bridge and he was glad that funding is included in
the budget to accommodate that at this time.
He recognized that the City has already increased capacity from Highway
417 to the Blair Road interchange by adding a third westbound lane and this summer
there will be a third east bound lane added to OR 174. He recognized that this bridge reconstruction
is required in order to add a third span as part of the overall widening of
Highway 417 from downtown to the split.
With continued growth in the east end of Ottawa, this added capacity is
necessary. And, when the City converts
the transitway to light rail from Tunney’s Pasture to the Blair Transitway
Station, there will be a need for this capacity on the Queensway for the buses
to pick up the slack and ensure mobility for transit riders going east/west.
The councillor recognized that this bridge
replacement needs to happen in order to ensure the City is modernizing its’
transportation network in this particular location to an adequate degree, in
order to meet existing and future demand.
He appreciated that staff would be coordinating all efforts to ensure
that all issues involved in such a massive and complex project are addressed.
Chair McRae thanked the MTO and their
consultants for their presentation and staff for working on this important
matter. She hoped there would be a
communications plan and that they would undertake to meet with the affected
ward councillors.
Moved
by J. Legendre
That
the Transportation Committee recommend that Council approve that the City urges the Province to maintain
all-day lane capacity in both directions on the Queensway during the
reconstruction of the Cyrville Road Bridge.
CARRIED
Klaus Beltzner failed to see why the existing bridge could
not be maintained while a second bridge is constructed right next to it. He explained that this is what occurred on
the Bronson Avenue and Bank Street bridges and wondered why that was not
considered to be done in this particular case.
With respect to the detour strategy that will be put in place, he did
not hear a detour which goes along the Aviation Parkway from Highway 417 and
then left on Ogilvie Road. He heard the
detour would go further east of Blair and then to Ogilvie Road and the
Committee should take into consideration the opportunity for a detour on the
Aviation Parkway. He acknowledged that
there would be disruption and lane closures and the opportunity is to take some
of the traffic off OR 174 by providing more transit. He believed transit capacity can be improved
during this construction period, with the addition of service being offered
from the Trim and Millennium park and ride lots. Also, there are methods that will allow the
City to increase capacity through the downtown area for this duration and will
improve the modal split. Further details
of this are contained in his e-mail to Committee dated 4 May 2010 and reflected
in the photographs attached to that e-mail.
A copy of his submission is held on file.
Following on this presentation, Councillor
Leadman wondered whether Transit Services staff would take into consideration
the option provided by the delegation in terms of looking at this project
overall and the potential in improving the support services for the residents
and to bring some relief through the OR 174 split. Mr. Scrimgeour explained that as they learn
more about the MTO’s detailed construction plans, they will be able to deduce
from that what impacts they would have on general mobility. He offered that there may be the possibility
of building elements of this into the overall traffic management plan that
staff referred to previously. And, if
staff knows early enough what additional resources would be required, they may
be considered as part of the 2011 budget, but such information would have to be
determined before the fall. The
councillor suggested to the MTO representatives and their consultants that if
there is an opportunity where there can be some funds allocated to support
transit options in order to minimize the impact of this project, she believed
it would work in both favours. Mr.
Vanderlaan indicated that they were open to any discussions.
That the Transportation Committee receive this
presentation for information
RECEIVED
