Ottawa residents had a chance to voice their opinions about the city’s new light rail transit (LRT) system and downtown tunnel at an open house on Thursday evening.
Planners from Delcan, the company managing the project, and city representatives are seeking public input on the plan. The open house included a presentation that revealed possible station locations, design and construction methods for the tunnel and ground-level LRT line. As part of the planning stage, Ottawa citizens are invited to complete a comment questionnaire to weigh in on the proposals.
The LRT track will be built along the existing transitway. The line will comprise 13 stations from the west end of the city at Tunney’s Pasture station, to Blair station in the east. Two of these stations will be downtown, one at Lyon, and one at O’Connor, with another station serving Rideau Centre.
The tunnel is planned to span just past LeBreton station, east of Booth Street, through the downtown core to Campus station, close to the University of Ottawa. Planners are considering single or twin parallel tunnels that will run somewhere between Slater and Sparks, directly under the street. Another option is a “cross-country” plan, where the tunnel’s alignment would not follow the boundaries of a single street.
Planners are also looking to connect the future LRT line with the existing O-Train at Bayview station. One possibility is an actual transfer, where passengers would change from the O-Train to the LRT train. An alternative is the “direct to downtown” plan where the O-Train would continue along an eastern route expansion.
The approximate cost for this project not including trains and equipment is $830 million, with $600 million for the tunnel portion alone. Including trains, the LRT project cost is expected to reach $1.3 billion.
The public may submit their comment questionnaires by March 13, 2009.
For further information or to submit comments online visit www.ottawa.ca/tunnel .