Residents of Bank Street near Gladstone Avenue will have front-row seats on an infrastructure facelift this month as Hydro Ottawa plans to bury a short section of overhead power lines to provide proper clearance for a major construction project.
And buried wires could soon become a much more common practice in older sections of Ottawa as the result of a joint initiative between Hydro Ottawa and the city.
The immediate burial project will occur around the former Metropolitan Bible Church at 453 Bank St., which is being replaced by a nine-storey condominium complex that won’t be completed until 2011.
The construction taking place until June this year will include the burying of overhead electrical wires along Bank Street.
It’s a move that Centretown Citizens Community Association president Shawn Menard says will ultimately improve the area.
“The burying of overhead electrical wires is generally regarded as a positive thing by the community,” says Menard.
“It is often a nice aesthetic element in communities, and mitigates issues with development in nearby areas.”
With Bank Street already pulsing with thousands of vehicles on a daily basis, the Hydro Ottawa work and the other construction activity around the Bank-and-Gladstone intersection promises to increase volume and slow down traffic – something area residents aren’t looking forward to.
“It’s already a zoo on Bank Street,” says Lesley Hannigan, a five-year resident of the area. “I can only imagine how long it’s going to take for cars to move an inch in rush hour.”
Hannigan, who lives on Gladstone Avenue, says she thinks that while the end result of the wire burial and ongoing construction may be promising, she is concerned about getting to work on time and dealing with early morning noise.
While the look of Bank Street will be improved with the burial of wires and the eventual completion of the condominium, shoppers and businesses alike will have to suffer through another prolonged construction project in an area that has been swarming with road crews for the past two years, says Hannigan.
“Let’s be serious,” she says. “A nice shopping day is much more appealing when there aren’t dump trucks and drills in the way.”
The burial of a 120-metre section of overhead wires will take about three months.
As developers have in other areas of the city, condo builder Tamarack Homes is paying to put the Bank Street wires underground, says Hydro Ottawa. It’s a trend that has the electrical utility and city staff discussing a comprehensive strategy for line burials throughout the city.
Earlier this year, the lack of a clear policy on burying overhead wires contributed to a one-year postponement of the Bank Street reconstruction project south of the Queensway.
Glebe business owners had cited the power line issue, along with uncertainty about the future of Lansdowne Park, as reasons to delay the roadwork that has finally been completed for the downtown stretch of Bank Street.
But the city and Hydro Ottawa appear to be moving to clarify the policy on overhead wires.
“The City of Ottawa has a process under way to look at options for a policy on the burial of all overhead lines,” says Hydro Ottawa spokesperson Rosemary Walsh.
“And Hydro Ottawa will be collaborating with the city on that study.”