Rideau Street to get wider sidewalks

Posted Feb 16, 2012 By Laura Mueller

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EMC News - The City of Ottawa is set to bury hydro lines on Rideau Street this summer, despite recently approving a policy that says the city won't pay the to remove hydro poles as a standard practice.

Rideau will be reconstructed from Dalhousie Street to Chapel Street starting in April, with much of the work set to be done before Canada Day.

When it's done, it will, "look as nice as Preston and Bank (streets)," said Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury.

The work will include widening the sidewalks along much of the street, in some cases by up to 30 per cent. "Sharrows," or arrows marking shared bicycle and vehicle lanes, will be added, with the goal of making Rideau a more pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly environment, Fleury said.

Despite a city policy that says hydro wires can't be buried underground unless local businesses, developers and residents pay for it, the Rideau project will bury the remaining above-ground hydro wires on the south side of Rideau between King Edward and Wurtemburg.

It's a special case, Fleury said. In that area, the sidewalk must be narrowed slightly, meaning the hydro poles have to be moved or else they would be on the street. The poles can't be relocated further into the sidewalk because there wouldn't be enough room for sidewalk snow plows to get through, so the only solution left is to remove the poles altogether, he said.

The project could also mean some changes to troublesome intersections along Rideau, as recommended in the Rideau area transportation network study, Fleury said.

The most major of those changes could be adding two-way traffic to Cumberland between George and Rideau, which would provide another exit from the Byward Market. That could also include the addition of a cycling lane south of Rideau to allow cyclists to safely exit the Byward market area via Cumberland.

A consultant will advise on those possibilities in the coming weeks.

Where possible, the city will trade left-turn lanes for wider sidewalks, but that's not the case at Nelson Street - a situation that has local community associations upset.

Transportation engineers have the final say, and they decided the left-turn lane northbound off Rideau Street will still be needed, so sidewalks in that section cannot be widened - in fact, the sidewalks will be narrower in order to accommodate the sharrow lane.

But John Verbaas, who deals with transportation issues for community group Action Sandy Hill, said an engineer's report supports the community's preference to lose the turning lane at Nelson in favour of wider sidewalks.

Wider sidewalks are an important building block to create a more welcoming area for pedestrians, Verbaas said.

adding that attracts new businesses and improves street life along that beleaguered section of Rideau,.

And it wouldn't just allow for wider sidewalks in the short span that includes the turning lane, Verbaas said. If that small section of turning lane is removed, the sidewalks could be wider in the entire block between King Edward and Nelson, extending past the Loblaws grocery store on the other side of Nelson.

"It just communicates a whole different feeling to the street," he said.

Wider sidewalks offer the obvious safety benefit of a larger buffer between walkers and vehicles, Verbaas said, comparing the fight over Rideau to the argument made by advocates fighting to "rescue" Bronson Avenue by reducing the number of traffic lanes.

Fleury called a meeting with community members on Feb. 15 to try to resolve the issue, but he said, "To me, that's a very minor element."

Fleury is also concerned about revising the detour and road-closure plan for the project. One lane in each direction is planned to be open at all times during construction. Both buses and vehicles would share the lane.

The remainder of the Rideau Street reconstruction project, between Chapel and the Cummings Bridge, should be completed by the end of the summer of 2013.




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