General Road and Highway Discussion

[Acitta]

Ottawa Street in Kitchener to undergo $10M worth of construction upgrades

Two-way traffic will be reduced to one lane in each direction on Ottawa Street this year, from Fischer-Hallman Road to Pinedale Drive, with more than $10 million worth of construction slated to get underway next month.
The work on Ottawa Street extending to Mowat Boulevard will be done over two years, with the street closed to traffic, from Pinedale Drive to Westmount Road, for replacement of the culvert at Borden Creek in 2025.
Upgrades include a new roundabout at the Westmount Road intersection (traffic will be maintained at the intersection during construction), as well as multi-use trails on both side of Ottawa Street.


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This is good news. Ottawa from Westmount to Fischer-Hallman is in terrible shape. I was wondering when they were going to rebuild it.

Mixed bag. I have family in the area and getting there by anything other than a car is annoying. I biked (and walked my bike due to lack of infrastructure) there the other day and saw roughly 10 other cyclists walking or biking on the sidewalks around Westmount/Ottawa, so the trails are sorely needed (on Westmount as well at least to connect to the trail over to Greenbrook). However, if the roundabout is the same as the rest of the Region's, I'll probably never walk or bike to see my family again.

Depending on where you are coming from and going to, there may be alternate routes. I have been using the Laurentian trail to get to the Sunrise Shopping Centre to avoid riding on Ottawa, not so much because of the traffic, but because the road surface is so rough. I still have to negotiate the Westmount/Ottawa intersection since I come from the trail through Concordia Park from Greenbrook and Stirling.