Airport Parkway Plan Gets Added Pathway
It hasn’t received any mainstream media attention, but public works and infrastructure committee last week approved a motion (seven yeas, four nays) by Orleans South-Navan Councillor Catherine Kitts to recouple two future road projects:
The two facets to be planned together are:
- the widening of the Airport Parkway;
- the building of a multi-use path (MUP) on the west side of the roadway that would accommodate cycling and other modes of active transportation for area residents, and include a Walkley Rd. off-ramp.
—
This post is courtesy of the city-wide community group Your Applewood Acres (And Beyond) Neighbours
—
Debate at the meeting focused on two main issues. One side arguing that the west side Multi-Use Pathway, which is estimated will cost $875,000 today, should be built as soon as possible (2027 start is the earliest) to encourage active transportation.
The other side argues that any new MUP (there is one on the east side) plans should be paused and developed in conjunction with a proposed Airport Parkway widening project, because that construction will lead to at least partial damage (and possibly significant or complete damage) of the MUP, and would require expensive repairs or full replacement. And it was also noted that while not perfect, there is an MUP on the east side of the parkway that can be used for active transportation until the Parkway widening is and any new MUP can be finished.
Supporters of building the west-side MUP sooner argued that delaying it will only lead to higher costs; that current traffic patterns on the roadway currently show little evidence the parkway will need widening, plus the LRT Trillium Line has just opened and they believe this will lead to even less vehicle traffic growth to the airport.
Counter arguments included that the city is working hard to promote more tourism to the city and that a significant increase in flights at the Ottawa Airport are expected in the future, and noted the announcement last week that Air Canada has restarted direct flights from Ottawa to London’s Heathrow airport (which paused during Covid), and say they expect more traffic on the parkway will be the result even with the train service.
The meeting included some passionate discussions and a somewhat heated moment at the end when Committee Chairman Tim Tierney made this comment before calling the vote:
“What we are really dealing with here today has nothing to do with coupling or not coupling … this vote is about … do we want to spend almost a million dollars (on the MUP) and then rip it back out in the future?”
Knoxdale-Merivale Councillor Sean Devine took issue with Tierney’s comments, saying that it implied voting against having the projects coupled was irresponsible: “You are putting words in my mouth, and you are saying I am wasting a million dollars chair. I don’t think that is fair.”
This is the motion that passed:
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the construction of the MUP along the west side of the Airport Parkway be deferred and considered with the Airport Parkway widening.
The item is now expected to be voted on at Council April 16.
For You:
POTHOLES: Look Back In Anger: QUOTABLE
I Will Debate Lansdowne: SARAVANAMUTOO
Night Mayor Serves Whole City: THE VOTER
How Western LRT, Richmond Road Are Progressing
Here’s What The Nightlife Commissioner Has Done
Bookmark The Bulldog, click here
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
– The Bulldog – News Feed Enter 
Why would Councillor Kitts even need to bring such a motion*? Where were our highly paid planners when such projects were planned?
Few among us have not watched a road or sidewalk being torn up to work on utilities or to rebuild it only to see, not long after, the brand new surface being dug up again for other purposes. It would be well worth the investment at the City to hire someone to look at proposed projects to see where they could lead to work being done more than once and coordinate the construction. That position is only needed, of course, because there seem to be no automatic checks in place that would render it unnecessary.
*Rhetorical question when you’re dealing with the City of Ottawa and its planning ‘processes’!
I didn’t realize the Airport Parkway was going to be widened so I just did some research online. I assumed the project would be multi-phased and the plan would be to widen the road from 2 lanes to 4 lanes; right on both counts. For those of you who don’t use the Parkway the speed limit is 80 km/hr and traffic moves along swimmingly, although it does slow down in a couple of places during rush hour This is no different than any other road within the city. Widening the road to 4 lanes will allow traffic to move faster and allow for passing with the net result being more accidents. It is also likely that teen drivers will use the widened road as a raceway resulting in the need for additional police presence. Currently the Parkway is more or less accident-free. If and when accidents do occur the benefits of reduced time on the road will be lost as emergency vehicles are called onsite and rubberneckers slow traffic to a crawl. There’s an old saying that goes “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Is widening the Airport Parkway a necessity or are there better ways of putting taxpayer money to use?
Siscco is right on. I used to commute in Vancouver through a busy tunnel. Rush hour “seemed” to add 30+ minutes. I timed it, 7 min! I also commute along the Parkway. I cannot believe that widening is considered($100 mil). My estimate is a 2 min rush hour “penalty”. Time it (normal vs rush hour) and please prove me wrong .
I agree with siscco and waba – the increase in the amount of traffic at the airport that would justify widening the airport parkway would first have to overwhelm the capacity of the airport’s terminal building. Air Canada’s 4x weekly flights to London will represent a spit in the bucket as far as road traffic is concerned.