Not sure where to put this, but the new pedestrian bridge won't be available for 3 years?
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...an-three-years
Joanne Laucius, Published Aug 08, 2023
'It's a tease': A bridge over the Queensway built in a weekend won't be opening for more than three years
Access to the pedestrian bridge won't be granted until the future Queensview Station opens for services in 2026.
Sarah Sullivan Partridge typically crosses the Pinecrest Road overpass on her bike from her home in Queensview Terrace North a couple of times a week.
Her destination is usually the Pinecrest Mall, the Pinecrest Recreation Complex or College Square. But it’s a far from pleasant trip for both cyclists and pedestrians, Partridge says.
Travelling in either direction, people walking or on bikes need to negotiate two Queensway on- and off-ramps. Motorists don’t have to yield to pedestrians in this case. It’s confusing to both.
On the weekend of July 29-30, the Queensway was shut down between Woodroffe Avenue and Greenbank Road while a pedestrian bridge spanning the highway was built. The bridge is part of the LRT’s Stage 2 west extension, providing a link between Queensview Station, still under construction on the north side of the Queensway, and Baxter Road on the south side.
Members of the public won’t have to pay an OC Transpo fare to access the bridge.
That’s good, says Kathy Vandergrift, president of the Queenview Terrace North Community Association. People on the north side want access to stores and services on the south side. Until now, the only way to get there has been to cross the Pinecrest Road overpass, which was built for vehicular traffic.
The problem for residents? The bridge can’t be accessed until Queensview Station is open to paying transit customers. At this point, that’s anticipated in late 2026.
“Public access to the Queensview pedestrian bridge is tied to revenue service as the northern entrance to the bridge connects to the Queensview Station plaza,” City of Ottawa rail construction program director Michael Morgan said in a prepared statement.
“As a result, access to the bridge will coincide with when the station opens to the public.”
That doesn’t sit well with Vandergrift.
“They tend to treat all of it as one project,” she says. “Could they schedule things progressively? The mindset is that these things have one finish date. It’s all designed from a system perspective.”
Keeping this piece of connective infrastructure closed for more than three more years is ridiculous, says Partridge, who finds it frustrating that a bridge can be built in a weekend, but will take over three years to open.
“There is no obligation to open it, so they won’t. It’s so close and yet so far out of reach. I would use it if it were open today. It’s a tease,” says Partridge, who has been anticipating more excursions with her three children.
Big changes are coming to the neighbourhood in the form of intensification and applications to build condo towers. A secondary plan is to be released this fall.
Plans for Queensview Station include the pedestrian bridge, a station plaza with six passenger pick-up and drop-off spaces and 20 bike parking spaces, with room to double that number.
There will also be a couple of multi-use pathways on the north side, including some east of the new station to Connaught Avenue connected to pathways from Severn and Hanlon avenues as well as a pathway on the west side of the Leon’s furniture store and a sidewalk on the store’s west side.
On the south side of the Queensway, a sidewalk will be built on one side of Baxter Road, with a cycling facility from Iris Street along Baxter Road to the new bridge.
Bike Ottawa supports facilities that allow residents to get around the city without cars, vice-president Dave Robertson says.
“Bringing people across the 417 on this bridge, while avoiding Greenbank Road, which has narrow sidewalks alongside fast-moving car and truck traffic and no cycling facilities, would greatly benefit citizens. It would also connect people to the nearby NCC pathway system,” he says.
Not opening the bridge for another three years is another example of how P3 agreements do not benefit the general public, Robertson says.
“We have also been facing roadblocks from this P3 rail project, where the Trillium pathway near Carling has been blocked off for much of this past year without a safe detour due to construction at Carling Station,” he says.
People in Queensview Terrace North are still dealing with night noise as construction continues, Vandergrift says. Opening the bridge might sweeten attitudes, she adds.
“The public attitude towards any construction project might improve if people could enjoy some of the benefits while they are waiting. Some pieces could be completed early enough so that people could return to a normal life and enjoy some of the benefits.”
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