Tag: LRT

Connectivity review: Speak up about your route to the LRT & Update on Berms

How will you access future LRT stations in our area – Lincoln Fields, Queensview, and Pinecrest? Will the new paths allow you to get where you need to go? Are they well placed? Do they need improvements?

Your access to future LRT stations is the central question to be answered by the Connectivity Enhancement Study by the City of Ottawa. You have an opportunity to review the plan and provide feedback between June 26 and July 10, 2020.

Your Voice Matters

It is important that QTN residents speak up, and use this process to show community interest for safe, adequate access to this major infrastructure project. We strongly encourage you to review the plan (click to view). To help ensure your feedback is taken seriously and to allow the association to support residents, please copy qtncommunity@gmail.com on your response to the City’s consultation.

Background

Several QTNca board members participated in a meeting with the City of Ottawa on the Connectivity Enhancement Study. We continued to highlight the need for:

  • Improved and direct access to LRT stations for pedestrians, cyclists, and persons with disabilities;
  • Ensuring the proposed pathways provide safe, year-round access to the LRT;
  • Reducing the impacts of visual and sound pollution from the LRT;
  • Maintaining and enhancing green space; and,
  • Improving the communication of plans and providing opportunities for genuine community consultation.

Communication and genuine consultation has been an issue throughout the project. Residents of QTN continue to receive information after decisions have been made. Also, our opportunities to review the options are limited and brief. We must use this opportunity to have our voices heard.

We have seen a few improvements in the access to future LRT stations, but these improvements are not enough. For example, while there is now a feasibility study of an additional connection from Severn Ave to Queensview station, this important connection needs to be part of the plan, and fully funded. Millions of dollars have been allocated towards a bridge to connect those south of the Queensway to the Queensview station, but access from streets north of Queensview (Moncton Rd, Severn Ave), continues to be a problem.

Safety concerns on sections of the connectivity plan are ongoing. For example, the proposed pathway from Roman Avenue is located between the Queensway and the OC Transpo Depot, rather than closer to the houses along Severn Ave. How do you feel about this connection?

Access to Lincoln Fields station from QTN is improving with the creation of a new Multi-Use Pathway however, connections to Lincoln Fields Mall have not been included and the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway on/off ramps are not seeing safety improvements despite a plan to implement cycling infrastructure along Carling Ave.

Connaught Park Update: Berms

A drainage study has been completed and the berms are being redesigned to address a number of your concerns. This is part of the approval process by the National Capital Commission (NCC), which controls land uses in Connaught Park.  QTNca representatives have worked to keep your concerns a high priority by submitting two letters during the public consultation and continuing to engage in stakeholder meetings that bring together KEV, the NCC, Councillor Kavanaugh, and City staff.  The NCC review of the final design is expected to finish in in mid to late July so we anticipate receipt of additional details shortly thereafter.

Have questions? Want to discuss?

As previously mentioned, we would have preferred to host a public meeting, but given the current circumstances, we must communicate by email instead. Please contact us at qtncommunity@gmail.com if you would like to discuss further.

Upcoming consultation: Stage 2 O-Train West Connectivity Enhancement Study

As you may be aware, the City of Ottawa is undergoing a Connectivity Enhancement Study (click to view) for all Stage 2 LRT stations. This study will answer questions such as how you will access each station and ask you whether you feel the new paths and connections will allow you to get where you need to go.

It is anticipated that the period for public comments for the stations that impact you – Lincoln Fields, Queensview, and Pinecrest – will be announced shortly, possibly this week, and be open for comments for two weeks. We strongly encourage you to participate in this study to provide feedback on the placement and appropriateness of the connections to LRT stations.

We will share more information as soon as the opportunity is available on the City’s Stage 2 LRT website. We would have preferred to host a public meeting, but given the current circumstances, we must communicate by email instead. Please contact us at qtncommunity@gmail.com if you would like to discuss further.

References

Update on LRT work in Connaught Park (noise bylaw exception)

1 Comment

We are sharing, on behalf of Coun. Kavanagh’s office, the following update on LRT work in Connaught Park. We hope it provides some clarification on the noise this past evening and some clarity on when it might re-occur. If you have any concerns with this work please contact the Stage 2 LRT team directly and copy Coun. Kavanaugh as well as the association if you wish to share your feedback.

KEV has been granted a noise bylaw exception for concrete pouring of one single shaft tonight June 19th from 4am – 7am in the area of the transitway.

For this one night prior to notification being sent on Monday, they’ve committed the following:

  1. Only concrete trucks will be used for one pour, and they will access the site via the Transitway only
  2. Broadband back-up alarms would be used and no other activity or equipment will be operational until daytime
  3. They are giving their word that this work will not keep residents awake or be disruptive to any residents, understanding that if this is not the same their subsequent noise by-law exemptions requests will be at risk

Then, the rest of the work would resume on Wednesday after notifications of the noise exemption have been issued.

The regular noise exemption is listed below.

KEV has been granted a noise bylaw exemption permit from June 23rd to July 31st for flyover bridge drilled shaft concrete pouring work in Connaught Park. The equipment required for these works are a drilling rig, crane, generator, and misc trucks.

The closest residents to these works are approximately 130 metres away on Connaught Ave. KEV is currently drafting a public notice with the intention of distributing the day the work is set to begin.

KEV has provided the following rationale for night work for this particular activity:

  1. We have to maintain a concrete delivery temperature of 20C for our shafts; typically ice would be used to reduce the temperature of the concrete, however since we are using a self-consolidating concrete mix we don’t have much opportunity for adding ice.
  2. Moving the concrete placement to 4am, with wetting aggregates during the daytime, and using chilled water and the allowable amount of ice is the only way for us to meet the delivery temperature requirements
  3. For these reasons we request a start time of midnight so we have enough time to clean out the shaft, get it inspected, place the rebar cage and center it, after which the concrete placement can start.