Ottawa Street Widening (Hwy. 7 to Lackner)

[Markster]

Back to the "widening" - I still haven't been able to determine; Will there be new road/traffic lanes here or no?

If you follow the link to the EA:
https://icreate3.esolutionsgroup.ca/2306...tFinal.pdf

Yes, they say widening to 4 lanes.

[clasher]

The only part of Ottawa that was only two lanes was between Old Chicopee and Oldfield Drive, basically between River and Lackner. I guess that's getting lanes to make the whole stretch from the expressway to Lackner 4 lanes.

[BuildingScout]

I think it depends on how you measure the difference. If walking speed is 5 km/h, then a cycling speed of 15 km/h is roughly triple the speed. 50 km/h is also roughly triple the cycling speed.

That being said, my average cycling speed is 25-30 km/h (of course slower when climbing, and faster on downhills), so, in absolute terms for me, the difference between walking and cycling is roughly the same as the difference between cycling and driving. I would not want to use an MUT at that speed. Some roads are also dangerous at that speed (holes, cracks, debris, etc.) and I need to adjust accordingly.

For reaction time what matters is absolute difference in speed.

For injuries what matters is a combination of speed and the mass of the object propelling you. For some reason people in North America are really concerned about pedestrian/cyclist collisions as if they could be lethal (they rarely are) and completely ok with car/cyclist collisions which are far more often lethal.

[Viewfromthe42]

If the former happens, you can bet that it's a cyclist (the person) who'll be referenced in the headlines and chatter. If it's the latter, you can bet that it's a car or truck (not the driver) that's mentioned in any coverage for the most part.

[KevinL]

Not directly related to this project, but I am curious about whatever happened to the planned Grand River bridge that would connect Ottawa Street to Breslau. Obviously the Fairway bridge took precedence, but another one here would be of use as well. Are there any recent updates?

[Canard]

I'm having a hard time visualizing where an Ottawa extension to Breslau would protrude. There looks to be a big mine or something in between. I always see it from the Fairway bridge or whatever but I don't know what it is. It seems like that would be difficult to get across. I can't imagine a big 4-lane bridge terminating on the 40 km/h tiny road that goes through Breslau (if it was a straight extension). If it was an S-curve, I could imagine it connecting where the 40 km/h street meets Fountain, but again, that big mine is in the way.

[GtwoK]

These are the most viable routes I see. Red would probabaly require the least amount of effort / property (no filling in the... mine?), but there's a cemetery at the intersection in Breslau, and I doubt the city wants to deal with that kind of headache

[Markster]

If only the bridge existed...
It would cut 2km off the taxi ride from downtown to the airport!

As it is, both Victoria and Fairway routes are about 12 km. Via Ottawa it would be 10 km.

[Canard]

...And via rapid transit, it would be $3

(One can dream? Actually, I dream one day an airline will actually fly out of YKF and stick around for more than a year...)

[Markster]

These are the most viable routes I see. Red would probabaly require the least amount of effort / property (no filling in the... mine?), but there's a cemetery at the intersection in Breslau, and I doubt the city wants to deal with that kind of headache

You missed one fairly obvious route. There's a pretty straight line that you can see in the trees between the red and blue routes. I'm guessing there used to be a road there.

[GtwoK]

Oops! Yeah, didn't see that. Getting a smooth curve onto Township Rd 80 would be extremely difficult to do though, without some reconfiguring.

[Canard]

Roundabout!

[Viewfromthe42]

If only the bridge existed...
It would cut 2km off the taxi ride from downtown to the airport!

As it is, both Victoria and Fairway routes are about 12 km.  Via Ottawa it would be 10 km.

You're not thinking fourth-dimensionally!

[clasher]

I don't really think an Ottawa Street bridge would be all the useful to anyone except the people living right beside it. Travellers to Guelph are going to still go up to Victoria or the new highway 7, or head down to Kossuth and they might as well use the existing bridges to do those trips, they probably aren't at capacity and won't ever be.

The gravel pit, I think it was called Forwell Gravel, is still active so they'd have to be bought out to build the orange route and I don't think it's really worth shutting down since there is such a high demand for aggregates in this region. The blue route cutting the Safety-Kleen plant in half doesn't make much sense given the levels of contamination there and it would be expensive to expropriate the whole plant.

The Fairway bridge cost 51 million dollars, I think building an Ottawa street bridge would be a huge waste of money for little utility.

[GtwoK]

I don't really think an Ottawa Street bridge would be all the useful to anyone except the people living right beside it. Travellers to Guelph are going to still go up to Victoria or the new highway 7, or head down to Kossuth and they might as well use the existing bridges to do those trips, they probably aren't at capacity and won't ever be.

The gravel pit, I think it was called Forwell Gravel, is still active so they'd have to be bought out to build the orange route and I don't think it's really worth shutting down since there is such a high demand for aggregates in this region. The blue route cutting the Safety-Kleen plant in half doesn't make much sense given the levels of contamination there and it would be expensive to expropriate the whole plant.

The Fairway bridge cost 51 million dollars, I think building an Ottawa street bridge would be a huge waste of money for little utility.

I don't think it's an IMMEDIATE concern. But give it 20, 30 years and the city will have expanded much farther East. We'll need more arterial roads breaking up what is now countryside, and Menno Street / Township Rd 80 looks to be in the right place to divide things up evenly. And with 2 arterial roads (Ottawa and Menno) lined up so evenly, it would only make sense to eventually connect them with a bridge.