Preston Extension / Booth Closure

[wingman]

I was heading through Lebreton last night, and Booth is closed between the Parkway and Albert/Scott.

Figured I'd take the Parkway west and then there was a big extension to Preston in place to accommodate the Booth closure...

I was like whoa wtf is this... ha ha...

I had no idea this was even in place or what it is for... but it works quite well.

Anyone know what this is about? I assume they are fixing up Booth?

[HighwayStar]

^^^ See here: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showpost.php?p=6846705&postcount=1692

[waterloowarrior]

Booth is being widened to four lanes as part of the Confederation Line project. I assume they will also be building Pimisi Station during the closures. Booth will be closed until Summer 2016. I am not sure whether the new Preston Street extension detour is only built to a temporary use standard but long term it will be permanent.

[McC]

Darwin says the current iteration of the Preston extension is temporary.

[wingman]

Originally Posted by McC

Darwin says the current iteration of the Preston extension is temporary.

Yes yes of course.

I totally missed that post HighwayStar! Many thanks.

[1overcosc]

So.. they built the Preston extension, then they'll tear it up when Booth opens, only to rebuild it later? Seems a bit wasteful to me...

What is meant by 'being built to temporary standards'? The roadbed & pavement built to a shoddy standard that won't have a lifespan of more than 5 years type thing?

[1overcosc]

The Booth closure will also be used to grade separate the Booth-Transitway/LRT intersection. Judging by the renders, it seems that Booth will be raised to not have the current 'dip' it has around the Transitway, to allow the Transitway/LRT to pass underneath it.

[McC]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

What is meant by 'being built to temporary standards'? The roadbed & pavement built to a shoddy standard that won't have a lifespan of more than 5 years type thing?

I think that's exactly what it means. I'm not sure if the Albert-Scott widening is being done the same way, but that was exactly George Dark's suggestion during the Scott St CDP process: widen it cheaply so the buses rip it to shreds in order to take away the rationale to keep the widened street post-2018. "Build the extra lanes badly, and the City will have to put it back afterwards" was the motto.

[Kitchissippi]

It's temporary because it's not grade separated from the LRT ROW. They're probably going to leave that for the future developer to take care of.

The new raised Booth street viaduct will span the aqueduct above the old stone bridge, which will be preserved underneath for pedestrians. It's a pretty wide bridge, it will practically be a covered plaza. I hope they'll pay special attention to the underneath of that viaduct as it will be the "ceiling" (but I doubt it); special lighting would be nice.

[DarthVader_1961]

Booth goes to somerset to, if i am not mistaken. Obviously that section is not being widened to 4 lanes. Seems kinda odd to widen only a portiin if it.

Are there any pics of what it will all look like after the widenning is dine?

[Norman Bates]

As I recall, Preston used to go to the Parkway. I presume it was closed when the Transitway was first built through there circa 1984.

[Radster]

That must have been many years ago, but there are still some remnants of that visible to this day, like the overpass and abandoned onramp onto the parkway westward.

Anyhow, right now the new extension is quite smooth, as there is no traffic due to the holidays. But once we get to January, all that Booth traffic rerouting through the new Preston extension and merging onto the jammed parkway traffic will create quite a few headaches I fear (especially in the PM, but also a bit in the AM). For me, commuting by car from Hintonbourg to Hull in the AM, I think I will be avoiding this and instead continue on Albert into the core and then branch off left on Bronson, Queen and Bay and over the Portage bridge.

[waterloowarrior]

You also used to be able to go from Bronson right to Gatineau via a connection to Booth through the flats. It's interesting to look at maps.ottawa.ca aerial photos to see the various roadway network changes here over the years.

[TransitZilla]

Originally Posted by waterloowarrior

You also used to be able to go from Bronson right to Gatineau via a connection to Booth through the flats. It's interesting to look at maps.ottawa.ca aerial photos to see the various roadway network changes here over the years.

It's quite something to see how many things changed in the city between 1976 and 1991, from those images on geoOttawa.

For example;
-the changes in Lebreton that you refer to
-construction of the Vanier Parkway and reconfiguration of the 417 interchange
-construction of the Transitway

Orleans went from almost nothing to a huge suburb between 1976 and 1991. I'm not sure all the growth in Orleans since 1991 comes close to the growth that happened there in the '80s.

[Norman Bates]

Originally Posted by Radster

That must have been many years ago, but there are still some remnants of that visible to this day, like the overpass and abandoned onramp onto the parkway westward.

Anyhow, right now the new extension is quite smooth, as there is no traffic due to the holidays. But once we get to January, all that Booth traffic rerouting through the new Preston extension and merging onto the jammed parkway traffic will create quite a few headaches I fear (especially in the PM, but also a bit in the AM). For me, commuting by car from Hintonbourg to Hull in the AM, I think I will be avoiding this and instead continue on Albert into the core and then branch off left on Bronson, Queen and Bay and over the Portage bridge.

Lebreton station was one of the first Transitway stations. As I recall, it was opened before the Tunney's Pasture and Lanark (later renamed Westboro) stations were opened.

So the buses accessed the Parkway at that ramp that is to the immediate west of the War Museum. There's even a small overpass there if you look carefully to allow for the west-bound buses to get on.

Before that, express buses going west would turn onto Bronson at Albert, climb the hill and proceed to the Queensway. In the summer of 1983 I took an express bus from downtown to visit a buddy's place on Tobin in the Pinecrest neighborhood. It followed that route.

[Mikeed]

The extension is also on NCC land and the city would want the NCC to pay for it.

[Norman Bates]

Passed through there by car yesterday.

There are no right hand turns allowed from the eastbound parkway onto the southbound Preston Street.

Surely there's a good reason for this but it means that you're options for turning right off of the Eastbound parkway to travel south are at Lemieux island and next at Lyon street.

[McC]

A lot of people don't notice, or just plain ignore, the sings; but you weren't permitted to make that turn on to Booth either, and you're not supposed to turn on to Slidell in the morning or afternoon.

[eltodesukane]

[QUOTE=bradnixon;6854374]
It's quite something to see how many things changed in the city between 1976 and 1991, from those images on geoOttawa.
QUOTE]

I somewhat agree with you.
Yet overall, I must say change has been slow coming between 1976 and 2014. Certainly not what it could have been.
Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal have seen much more.

Not even talking about Shanghai (1987-2013)
http://www.businessinsider.com/shanghai-growth-gif-2014-11
and so many other cities...

[MichelKazan]

I messed up. How do I delete this post?