City Hall Creates New Transportation Nightmare: BENN
Is anyone at city hall responsible for coordinating projects? Seriously?
This week OC Transpo, the wholly owned subsidiary of the City of Ottawa, announced that it would be closing down the section of the LRT between Tunney’s Pasture and the Rideau Station for a two-week stretch. It was described as ‘scheduled corrective maintenance’. The key word in this phrase being scheduled.
At the same time, the city announced that the west bound lane of Scott Street is scheduled to be closed for about two months, starting on the same date as the LRT shutdown. Scott Street is the main route used by OC Transpo buses when the western leg of the LRT isn’t running. The key word in this announcement is scheduled.
To further complicate matters, Highway 417, a provincial route, is scheduled to be closed for an extended weekend at the end of July, to replace the overpass at Preston Street. Note the word scheduled.
Put the three pieces together and the section of Ottawa that is west of Centretown will be facing scheduled congestion of a magnitude that is difficult to comprehend. Collector and arterial roadways will be backed up as people try to navigate their way through the maze of neighbourhoods, trying to get where they want to go. Congestion leads to a number of known hazards. Emergency vehicles will be delayed in getting to emergency situations. Cyclists will be at greater risk due to proximity to more vehicles. Pedestrians will need to be extra vigilant, as frustrated drivers and cyclists choose to ignore traffic rules.
Consider this scenario. A cyclist must take evasive action to avoid a motorist but in doing so collides with a pedestrian, with both of them falling into the path of another motorist, suffering life-threatening injuries. The call to 911 goes out immediately, but the ambulances, assuming the crew aren’t waiting to off-load patients at the nearby hospital, struggle to bypass the bumper-to-bumper traffic. All while someone’s life is seeping away. While not a high probability, this scenario is certainly within the realm of the possible. It illustrates a point.
Did anyone at Ottawa City Hall notice this convergence of scheduled road and transit closures? Is anyone at city hall tasked with the responsibility of identifying overlapping scheduled road and transit closures, and making recommendations regarding the rescheduling of one or more of the conflicting projects? Is it possible that the convergence of conflicting route closures was noted, but a decision was made to just let the residents of the city cope with the inconvenience.
The very concept of responsibility is a delicate topic at city hall. Everyone wants the authority to make decisions. Precious few are willing to accept the responsibility that comes with authority. Afterall, responsibility leads to accountability. And accountability is resting in limbo along side transparency and openness.
Ron Benn, a finance executive, has been a member of the Centrepointe Community Association for the better part of three decades.
For You:
Scott Street Westbound Close Until Sept.
O-Train To Be Down For Two Weeks
Government Doesn’t Work For You: WAFFLE WATCH
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– The Bulldog – News Feed Enter 
Good post. You did miss the part where the city is calling the LRT shut down an annual event
Bad News but nobody is actually surprised by the lack of planning by the City.
However, great reporting at a level that all readers comprehend. Great work once again Ron. Thank You
My understanding is the equipment for LRT work must be booked more than a year in advance. (It is not economical to purchase them.) Other construction activities move based on weather. We have had a very heavy rainy summer. So work has been postponed into the planned LRT closure.
Each contract has different clauses on penalties for delays and who can propose delays.
The new Entertainment Nightmare (from Montreal, no less), the ongoing Nightmare on Laurier Avenue, and now a Transportation Nightmare. Maybe we were too quick in labeling Ottawa the Shawarma Capital of Canada when the Nightmare Capital may have been more appropriate.
Miranda, your comment reinforces my point. Let’s assume that the Scott Street partial shut down has been delayed by three weeks due to frequent rain. Instead of starting on July 15, it would have started in late June. The nearly two month time frame still overlaps with the scheduled shutdown of the western end of the LRT.
One of three scenarios come into play:
> no one is tasked with paying attention to big picture scheduling;
> someone is tasked with big picture scheduling, but failed to their job properly; or
> someone identified the overlap, along with the nearby Wellington Street resurfacing project and said … no further action required.
I lean towards the third possibility.
I am not overly worried about inconvenience that road construction imposes on those who need to frequent the area. Construction season is construction season and inconvenience/extended travel times are a necessary consequence. However, the apparent dismissal of the impact of multiple route changes on emergency services is worrisome. The six minute response time for Ottawa’s firefighters is a challenge at the best of times. The impact on traffic flow of multiple adjacent projects is not additive, it is more often geometric or exponential.
I am left to wonder whether the senior ranks of the emergency services departments are even consulted on matters such as these, and if so whether their input is paid any heed.