'High-stakes' list sets out Ottawa's road and transit projects for 20 years

A new bus transitway down the middle of Baseline Road and another one in Orléans have jumped to the top of the list of priority projects at the City of Ottawa.

Transportation planners have released maps that set out future additions to Ottawa's existing transit and road networks, and city councillors know it's a critical document that will dictate which projects get built for the next 15 or 20 years.

After all, the city has been following a transportation master plan from 2013 to guide its decisions for years longer than it intended.

As a sign of how overdue the refreshed list is, it's been several terms since councillors pushed to get road and transit projects prioritized for their residents. Most of the current council wasn't around when that happened.

"I'm worried. I feel this is such a high-stakes document because it's the next 20 years of infrastructure investment," said Coun. Catherine Kitts, who represents the fast-growing ward of Orléans South-Navan. "We really have to get it right."

After years of traffic modelling and consultations, city staff have drawn up a list of Transitway and bus lane projects worth $2.2 billion, plus another $1.1 billion of new and widened roads.

Light rail had been the focus of previous transportation plans dating back to amalgamation. In this document, the city is counting on upper levels of government to pay the estimated $8.3 billion for Stage 3 of light rail construction.

Premier Doug Ford promised those extensions to Stittsville and to Barrhaven during the Ontario election in February. 

Pandemic patterns

Transportation master plans are typically updated every five years or so, but pandemic lockdowns and work-from-home arrangements in the federal public service dramatically changed commuting patterns in Ottawa.

That led city staff to press pause on their traffic modelling. Once things had settled, there was a big study of how people get around, plus modelling of population growth and where homes will get built.  

Jennifer Armstrong, the acting director of transportation planning, says since the pandemic there's been less regular commuting downtown, especially on Mondays and Fridays. More people are travelling between suburbs, she said, and transit ridership is down.

Given all that, staff set out to deal with traffic bottlenecks, provide roads to future housing developments, and try to get half of people walking, biking, taking transit or carpooling instead of driving.

They've now laid out $2.2 billion in transit projects through to 2046, with the following at the top of the list: 

• $360 million to create a bus transitway in the median of Baseline Road from Algonquin College to Billings Bridge. 
• $257 million for the Cumberland Transitway from Blair Road to the Chapel Hill park-and-ride lot.
• $140 million to extend that future Cumberland Transitway even further east, to Esprit Drive.
• $154 million to provide dedicated bus lanes on Carling Avenue between Lincoln Fields Station and Sherwood Drive (near Dows Lake).
• $122 million for dedicated bus lanes on Heron Road between Conroy Road and Bank Street.

Road projects worth $1.1 billion by 2046 include these highest ranked projects:

• $8 million to extend Stittsville Main Street from Maple Grove Road to Derreen Avenue.
• $33 million to extend a new, realigned Greenbank Road in Barrhaven from Cambrian Road south to Kilbirnie Drive.
• $88 million to extend Robert Grant Avenue in Stittsville from Hazeldean Road north to Palladium Drive.
• $31 million to widen Prince of Wales Drive to four lanes for an extra 800 metres south of West Hunt Club Road.
• $42 million to widen Brian Coburn Boulevard to four lanes for the 1.4 kilometres between Mer Bleue and Tenth Line roads in Orléans.

1950-era Alta Vista corridor partly dropped

The new rankings don't include some longstanding roads and transit projects the City of Ottawa has committed to financially that are already going ahead. 

Those include the extensions of light rail east to Orléans and west to Moodie and to Algonquin College. Construction of a realigned Greenbank Road in Barrhaven is set to start in spring 2026. There's also the widening of Bank Street in Findlay Creek and the expansion of Carp Road to four lanes between Highway 417 and Hazeldean Road.

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Other projects that were long on the books have either been dropped or pushed down.

For instance, since 1950, a corridor has been set aside to create a major road through Alta Vista near city hospitals, from Walkley Road to the Queensway.

It's faced opposition for decades, and now the city has decided there's no need for a northern section that would cross green space and the Rideau River to Nicholas Street. Capital Coun. Shawn Menard praised staff for protecting green space residents use in Old Ottawa East.

Meanwhile, widening the Airport Parkway to four lanes remains in city plans but has also fallen down the list. 

The new transportation master plan assumes public servants work in the office three days a week. It also expects populations in suburban communities outside the Greenbelt will continue to grow by tens of thousands of residents each. 

More east-west transit corridors

For a generation, the focus has been on light rail construction.

But now the City of Ottawa wants to push forward a number of bus transitways, including on Baseline Road, in Orléans, in Kanata North and in Barrhaven.

River ward Coun. Riley Brockington sits on the planning and housing committee and has watched many highrise buildings be approved on the premise that arterial roads will someday have rapid transit to serve the large populations. Residents are frustrated when buildings go up but there's no money or date for transit, he says.

Over a few blocks of Carling Avenue alone, Brockington says two dozen towers have been approved that will see many thousands of new residents. 

Now, Carling Avenue could finally see dedicated bus lanes from Bronson Avenue west to Lincoln Fields. Brockington is also happy to see the Baseline Transitway top the list.

He says bus corridors are critical for moving people more quickly.

"We have a lack of east-west corridors," said Brockington. "Baseline is prime for this type of corridor."

East-end worries

Another priority of this transportation master plan was to score road projects higher if they unlock new areas where homes can be built.

Armstrong says that's intended to recognize that Ottawa is growing and there is pressure to support all the development.

"There's just been a lot of growth that's already happened and the infrastructure is, frankly, not keeping pace," said Armstrong. 

Kitts has been hammering this issue since being elected in 2020 and has argued the east end has received less funding for roads than other areas.

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There are nearly 50 development applications in her Orléans South-Navan ward, she says, yet residents are already stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

"I don't understand how it's all going to work," she said. "How are people going to get around? It keeps me up at night, quite literally."

Kitts is glad her area is pegged for a bus transitway, but points out the project has been planned since the 1990s. She's more disappointed that Brian Coburn Boulevard is fifth in line to be widened from two lanes to four.

Vehicles end up stopping behind every bus that plies the route, leaving people fed up, she says.

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"I feel like it's like coming home to roost in south Orléans right now," Kitts said. "People are very frustrated."

Network needs pegged at $15.9B total

Kitts is urging her residents to take part in one of the eight public information sessions being held over the coming month. They turned out in great numbers when the city decided its cycling and pedestrian routes a couple of years ago, she said.

Armstrong welcomes that input.

"People always have an opinion about transportation," she said. "It impacts every part of your life in terms of how easy it is to get to the places that you need to go."

The City of Ottawa might be planning $2.2 billion in transit projects, not including light rail extensions, but its long list is worth $4.9 billion. For roads, it settled on $1.1 billion but laid out $2.7 billion overall.

"It comes down to money, because these projects are so expensive," says Brockington. "That's why council, at the end of the day, has to prioritize these projects."

Many designs are ready, but need the provincial and federal governments to help pay for them, agreed Armstrong.

Without extra money, the City of Ottawa won't meet its goal of shifting 50 per cent of trips made in Ottawa to more environmentally friendly forms of transportation.

The city's agricultural and rural affairs committee will consider staff recommendations in June, followed by the public works and infrastructure committee. Full city council is set to vote on the infrastructure list in July.