Centretown could potentially see more green space along the Ottawa River shoreline as a result of agreement by the National Capital Commission and the City of Ottawa to a $900-million plan to put the western LRT extension underground.
The plan moves the eastbound and westbound lanes of the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway closer together over top of the new LRT extension.
Starting at Dominion station, the tracks would dip underneath the parkway, resurfacing at Pinecrest Creek, freeing up usable space along the river to Cleary station.
“So far, it is just planned for this segment of the parkway, but they are looking to use this same technique in other parts of the parkway where it makes sense,” says Stephen Willis, executive director at the NCC.
“Where the road is close to the shorelines edge, we might be able to move them in a little and create more useable land.”
The NCC members of the LRT working group believe that this buried option meets the two NCC board of directors’ conditions for the project: to provide unimpeded, continuous access to the corridor lands and shorelines, and to have minimal impact on the landscape quality and experience.
“Right now, there’s about 68 hectares of land in that area,” says Willis.
“By putting the lanes closer together and having a smaller median, we’ll have 93 hectares of land along the shoreline that people can use.”
This is a 38-per-cent increase in greenspace between the parkway and the Ottawa River.
The working group developed two viable and fully buried tunnel options: one under the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway, and one passing through Rochester Field and under the Byron Linear Park.
“We were not prepared to tear up Byron Linear Park or the green corridor through Rochester Field, two treasured community assets,” said Deputy Mayor Mark Taylor at a recent announcement of the agreement.
“Now, with this agreement, they will both have official parkland status,” said Taylor.
The plan meets the city’s objectives of protecting the Byron Linear Park, and the existing green corridor through Rochester Field from Richmond Road to the waterfront, while remaining within the project’s budget.
“At the end of the day we developed two options that were so close in price that they were within the margin of error, they were effectively in the same range,” says Willis.
Along with the greenspace, there would also be a reduction of nearly 500,000 bus trips annually on the parkway and two new pedestrian crossings added to the future shoreline park.
The agreement will be presented to the NCC board of directors in April and has to be presented to city council for approval before the plan can be carried out.
The city will provide an opportunity for the public to review the plan and provide feedback at an open house event on March 30.
The NCC will also conduct consultations on May 5 about other potential areas for the Sir John A. Macdonald linear parks initiative, which would see this process done to other sections of the river.
“There’s lots of opportunities for the public to come out and learn more,” says NCC Communications adviser Mario Tremblay.