NEWS ARCHIVESJuly 18, 2011 Ottawa Light Rail Transit Update On July 14th, Ottawa City Council voted unanimously to advance the Ottawa Light Rail Transit project, as announced by Mayor Jim Watson on July 7th. The approved report contains an updated cost estimate – within the budget of $2.1 billion – a new design plan and a clear and affordable path for OLRT implementation. The revised Queen Street alignment outlined in the report improves ridership experience, brings the tunnel closer to the surface, reduces risk and improves cost certainty for construction. The change allows the tunnel to be constructed at a depth of 15 to 16 metres instead of 39 to 40 metres. The revisions mean it should take LRT passengers roughly one minute to descend to the stations instead of two minutes. The report also recommends a Design-Build-Finance-Maintain (DBFM) procurement approach that will secure a fixed price contract to construct and maintain the LRT system from Tunney’s Pasture in the west to Blair Road in the east. This 12.5km, 13 station LRT system includes a tunnel through the downtown core to address the transit bottleneck that slows service and challenges the reliability of the system today. This procurement approach will ensure this project is on time and on budget while taking advantage of the ingenuity and innovative ideas of private sector partners. The City of Ottawa commenced its request for qualifications process to identify firms with a proven track record in delivering successful LRT solutions to cities around the globe. For more
information:
www.ottawalightrail.ca. New Hydro Online Outage map In June, Hydro Ottawa launched a power outage map on their website. This latest addition to their outage communications portfolio displays the location of current outages, the estimated number of customers affected, the cause of the outage and the estimated time of restoration, if known. This information is updated every 15 minutes. Now, customers can access power outage updates by visiting hydroottawa.com/outagemap in addition to calling their Outage Reporting and Information Line at 613 738-0188. Hydro Ottawa is among the top performers in the industry in providing uninterrupted electricity service, and restoring power quickly when outages happen. When a power outage occurs, Hydro Ottawa’s first priority is to respond to any unsafe conditions. Once safe, the next steps are communications and the restoration of service as quickly as possible. Hydro Ottawa welcomes your feedback on this new
feature as they will continue to develop new solutions that
will make information even more accessible. The link
mentioned above will also be posted on my website. Hazeldean Road Construction Update The paving of Springbrook Drive from East Hazeldean to Trailway Circle has begun which will see the installation of a concrete sidewalk, on west side of Stittsville Main from Neil Street to about 260m south, begin shortly. Subsequent work is also on schedule to begin the installation of medians allowing better access to the Amberlakes Subdivision and Neil Avenue. The proposed construction work on the extension of Springbrook Drive from the south limit of the Hazeldean Road contract to Trailway Circle includes road resurfacing, installation of street lights ducts and miscellaneous concrete work. Phase II of the Hazeldean construction will also see the re-paving of Iber Road from Hazeldean to just north of Abbott Street. The proposed work on extension of Johnwoods from the north contract limit to Alon Street will include road resurfacing, but this will also give us the unique opportunity to remove the two speed humps on Johnwoods during the re-paving. We undertook a survey on this issue in the local area in order to gage what the community would like to do regarding these speed humps. The results from all the residents, who responded, are as follows: (91.2%) of residents want them removed and (8.8%) of residents want them left in. The reasons for the proposed removal are as follows: With the extension of Huntmar Road now enabled and the four-lane completion of Hazeldean now weeks away, traffic has decreased on Johnwoods rendering the humps mostly irrelevant. The humps themselves are also worn out and causing damage to vehicles including emergency vehicles and their response time. With the
proposed speed humps being removed, this would be an
opportune time to remind all residents using this street and
any street in our community and city as a whole, to please
respect the speed limit. Certainly if you witness any
speeding on this or any street, do not hesitate to report
this immediately to Police at 613-236-1222 x. 7300.
Every call is recorded and ensures that specific "hot spots"
are identified for future monitoring. OC Transpo Route Changes OC Transpo’s Service Design team has
finalized the route changes and how they will operate
beginning in September. Staff are now beginning the process
of developing schedules that will be made available to
customers; this work will be completed over the next few
weeks. As a result, beginning August 1st, the Travel Planner
(octranspo.com) will have the functionality of allowing
customers to view their route 60 days in advance – the usual
process only allows for a 14 day view. This will allow
customers to plan their trips with the new routes and
service schedule. OC Transpo is continuing to develop a
comprehensive communications strategy, which has developed a
theme and website – checkyourroute.ca – and a number of
opportunities to connect with customers. For more
information please consult
www.octranspo.com Youth Connexion Movie Nights In July and August,
Youth Connexion will be offering free movie nights on every
Tuesday beginning at 9pm in July and 8:30pm in August at the
Stittsville Village Square Park. All ages are welcome and
snacks will be available. For more information on the movie
night and other Youth Connexion activities, please consult
the Youth Programs Tab on my website or contact Kyla
Helping, Director of Youth Connexion (Stittsville &
Richmond) Program Coordinator - Rural Goulbourn Youth
Representative at 613-580-2424 ext.33230 Fax: 613-580-2815
youthconnexion@ottawa.ca. Always listening and acting on your concerns As your Councillor, I always welcome your keen input and ideas on how we can sustain and improve Stittsville. Please contact our office anytime by phone at 613-580-2476 or by e-mail at Shad.Qadri@ottawa.ca. My ward office is situated in the Goulbourn Recreation Complex, located at 1500 Shea Road. Please note the summer hours of operation are Mondays 9-1pm, Wednesdays 3-7pm, Fridays 9-4pm, and Saturday 9am-12pm. Please do not hesitate to pay us a visit. I welcome your call or email to arrange an appointment. If you are not part of my electronic outreach list and would like to be added, please contact my office to ensure you receive pertinent information concerning our community. Further information about any of these articles can be found on my website or you can contact my office to obtain details. |