By Julie Fortier
An already congested Ottawa River Parkway will have one more headache for commuters.
The National Capital Commission is planning a detour from the parkway in order to build a new Canadian War Museum in LeBreton Flats.
The detour will run just south of where the parkway is now. This will force commuters to cross Booth Street at a new intersection with traffic lights. Meaning that they will no longer be able to drive non-stop to Wellington Street but will have to wait as other commuters use the Chaudieres Bridge.
“I’m quite concerned about the detour creating more traffic backed up by the new intersection,” said Brian Williams, a frequent user of the parkway, at a recent open house about the LeBreton Flats redevelopment.
Peter McCourt, director of property development and planning for the project estimated the extra waiting time for each car would be “manageable.”
However, traffic in that area is already very congested during rush hour, especially the corner of Booth and Scott street. Adding another intersection before the bridge will likely back up traffic even further on all sides. For people who are not used to having any traffic problems on the parkway, this will likely cause a lot of headaches.
The museum is being built at a scenic area next to the Ottawa River west of Booth Street and the parkway will have to be rerouted to make way for it.
“We want to connect the capital to the green space that is right at the water’s edge which is somewhat cut-off by the Ottawa River Parkway,” said John Kane, spokesperson for the NCC during a recent public open house.
The project also involves eventually creating a permanent, four-lane boulevard through LeBreton Flats to connect the parkway to the downtown core. The new boulevard will be lined with residences and shops, much like the current Bank Street.
Peter Runia lives in the west-end and says the NCC should leave the parkway as is and build the war museum around it.
“LeBreton Boulevard should be a nice, community street and we should keep the parkway to move traffic. There is no way that we can replace [the parkway] with a little, Mickey Mouse, four-lane street,” he said.
However, widening the street any more does not seem to be an option, as Somerset Ward Coun. Elisabeth Arnold pointed out.
“If we built a six-lane roadway on either LeBreton or Booth Street or both, then we will create a traffic nightmare. We do not want to create Baseline and Merivale in a downtown, compact, urban site,” she said.