The City of Ottawa is setting aside $610,000 in its draft budget to rehabilitate Albert Street.
Community activists have been calling on the city to improve Albert Street for pedestrians when the road undergoes construction in the near future.
Any construction must be completed before work on a proposed tunnel for light rail transit begins. The stretch of Albert Street between Bronson Avenue and the City Centre that is designated for construction will be handling an increase in bus traffic from the Transitway if the tunnel is built.
This includes money for roads, sewers, storm drainage and waterways.
Planning for this project will not begin until the transportation department’s draft budget is approved by city council, says Jocelyne Turner, a spokeswoman for the city.
Eric Darwin, president of the Dalhousie Community Association, says the road is unpleasant for cyclists and walkers because of the road conditions.
“There are a lot of puddles and bumps and the street is congested,” he says.
Two priorities for the Dalhousie Community Association are to have the intersections at Bronson Avenue and Booth Street fixed.
Darwin says commuters use Booth Street to avoid Bronson Avenue during the morning rush hour. He says this through-traffic abuses Booth Street because the vehicles speed and clog the street.
A second concern he has with the intersection is that there are no countdown pedestrian signals, which is unsafe for pedestrians.
Darwin says pedestrian signals are also a concern at Bronson Avenue and Albert Street, because it is a busy and confusing intersection.
Somerset Coun. Diane Holmes says she has received numerous complaints over the years about this stretch of road.
“Everyone knows it’s been neglected for years,” says Holmes.
Darwin says he’d like to see a city planner working with traffic engineers on the construction planning. This would ensure the road is not just fixed, but that the intersections are looked at to improve pedestrian experiences and improve traffic flow.
Holmes says she will be doing her best to make sure there is a city planner involved because she wants to see if this is an opportunity for a road redesign instead of just a fix. She says it’s important to her that the road works now because it has to be useful for the next 50 years.
Darwin says he hopes knowing of the construction in advance will allow the community to have some input, which didn’t happen with the controversial Bronson Avenue redesign.
“We were blindsided by the city on Carling Avenue and Bronson Avenue (construction),” he says.
He says improving Albert Street will benefit the whole city because it would also promote cyclists and pedestrians to go downtown, a move that could benefit shops in the core.
“If you want people from this area and Hintonburg to come to the downtown core, why not promote them to bike or walk?” says Darwin. “Cyclists and pedestrians are cheap dates and it’ll help free up the roads.”