The western entrance to Ottawa’s future underground transit tunnel may either be at the north end of Booth Street, or further west, closer to Bayview, if the city decides to adopt proposals in a development plan for the escarpment district.
The plan was put in place to develop an “under-utilized hole in the west side of downtown,” says George Dark, a partner with Urban Strategies Inc.
The tunnel has to figure into the plan, which aims to support more residential and commercial development in the area, and create stronger connections between the existing neighbourhoods and LeBreton Flats development area.
Somerset Ward Coun. Diane Holmes says she is optimistic the tunnel will help alleviate traffic congestion on Albert and Slater streets in the future.
Dark says the plan would be for the light-rail transit track to run along a depressed trench until it passes under a bridge at Booth Street, and continues underground.
But if the entrance to the tunnel was located farther west, it would mean the land above would be available for development, says Dark.
“I think there’s an emerging consensus that the portal should be as far west, and certainly from [the] planning [committee], that they would like it even further west.”
If the entrance is at Booth Street, there will have to be walkways so pedestrians could travel over the rail trench to cross between the residential areas and central park, says Dark.
Richard Kilstrom, the city’s manager of community planning and design, says, “we have this plan but no one knows exactly where the LRT will be going underground, where the portal will be, and where its tracks will be.”
The plan will be considered by the Downtown Ottawa Transit Tunnel Planning and Environmental Assessment Study, which is expected to announce the plan for the tunnel in early 2010.
“The EA will take precedence in deciding what’s important for that tunnel and this plan will fit around whatever that is,” says Holmes. “But we hope we end up with some developable land as a result.”
Dark says the escarpment plan will be a useful tool for the environmental study because there was consultation from hundreds of members of the public over the last two-and-a-half years, showing the vision people have for their city.
Holmes described it as a great starting point for future discussion around the placement of the tunnel.
Knoxdale-Merivale Ward Coun. Gord Hunter said the plan’s vision does not explain how an underground tunnel can exist alongside the high rises called for in the plan. These buildings will require underground parking, causing further complications when an underground tunnel has to be built in the same area, he says.
“Just how deep does the tunnel have to be? […] it adds hundreds of millions of dollars to the cost of the downtown transit tunnel,” said Hunter.
According to Dark, those conducting the environmental study will have their hands full as they try to take this plan into account, and deal with the logistics of constructing a tunnel that navigates underground parking, foundations, and utilities.