M E M O / N O T E D E S E R V I C E |
|
M E M O / N O T E D E S E R V I C E |
|
|
To / Destinataire |
Mayor and Members of Council |
File/N° de
fichier: ACS2009-ICS-ECO-0007 |
|
From / Expéditeur |
Nancy Schepers,
Deputy City Manager, Infrastructure Services and Community Sustainability |
|
|
Subject / Objet |
Interprovincial
Crossings Announcement – Phase 1 Report |
Date: January 5,
2009 |
Today, the National Capital Commission (NCC) is releasing the Phase 1 findings and recommendations of the Interprovincial Crossings Environmental Assessment Study. Phase 1 addresses the needs and justification assessment for crossings of the Ottawa River.
A summary of the study report on CD-rom and a map of the technically preferred corridor were distributed to your mailboxes this morning. Communication materials from the NCC, including a press release and one page summary, have been saved to the Councillors’ shared drive.
Further information will also be posted on the Study’s website at www.ncrcrossings.ca.
The NCC will be presenting the Study recommendations at a special Transportation Committee Meeting on Monday, January 12, 2009. The NCC is looking for an endorsement from the City of Ottawa, City of Gatineau, MTO and MTQ to proceed to Phase 2 of the EA study prior to their board meeting on January 22, 2009.
Should Committee make a recommendation, it is expected that this item would then rise to Council on January 14, 2009, to meet the NCC’s timelines.
This memo is being written to provide a brief overview of the study process and recommendations, as well as City of Ottawa staffs’ technical position and a legal opinion on Council options.
The NCC, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO) and the Ministère des Transports du Québec (MTQ), in consultation with the City of Ottawa and Ville de Gatineau, carried out Phase 1 of a two-phase, federal Environmental Assessment (EA) Study. The scope of Phase 1 was to define the need for additional Interprovincial crossings, evaluate different crossing alternatives, recommend preferred corridors and identify their implementation priorities.
As part of Phase 1, ten alternative
corridor locations were short-listed and subjected to detailed environmental
investigations. The Study identified an east-end crossing at Kettle
Island (Corridor 5) as a first priority project for implementation based on its
ability to meet the transportation objectives of the Study while minimizing the
overall environmental effects.
In the west, no corridor ranked
significantly higher than the others and they all rated below the east-end bridge
options. As a result, a recommendation
on a preferred west-end crossing location was not formulated. The Study does,
however, conclude that municipalities should protect all corridors that are
currently under public ownership (or can be protected
under existing land use legislations) to provide flexibility in selecting other
future crossing locations.
At this time, the recommendation is that only the Kettle Island
Corridor be carried forward for more detailed assessment in the subsequent
Phase 2 of the EA Study. While Phase 2
of the Study will further assess preliminary design alternatives for Kettle
Island and identify required mitigation measures to minimize residual
environmental effects, it should be noted that significant concerns were raised
at the NCC’s September public consultation session. These concerns include the evaluation process, and impacts of the
Kettle Island Corridor on adjacent communities and the Montfort Hospital such
as air quality, noise, vibration, as well as safety and health issues. The concerns raised will also be looked at
in more detail during the Phase 2 study.
Currently, transit
accommodates approximately 26% of Interprovincial travel demand in the morning
peak hour. As indicated in the
Council-approved Transportation Master Plan (TMP), the objective is to increase
this share to 43% by 2031. Despite the
substantial increase in the role of transit, there will still be significantly
higher Interprovincial vehicular traffic volume.
To address the
capacity requirements, and the desire to remove heavy trucks from King Edward
Avenue, the TMP identified the need for two more Interprovincial crossings, one
serving east-end and the other serving west-end needs by 2031 (Source: TMP Road Infrastructure Needs Study, Delcan
Corporation, Supporting Document # 9 to the TMP staff report tabled at Joint
Transportation and Transit Committee on 10 November 2008).
The TMP modelling work assumed an east-end bridge at
Kettle Island, based on the following approved Council motion on 27 June 2007:
That the City of Ottawa recommend that the Terms of Reference of the Interprovincial Crossing EA Study be amended so as to reflect the City of Ottawa’s position that, if there is to be an east-end bridge crossing, it be located at Kettle Island.
The TMP assumption was to be re-visited again
following the recommendations of the Interprovincial Crossings EA Study and the
identification of preferred bridge locations.
Given the TMP analysis
and Council decision in June of 2007, staff support the Study’s recommendation
of Kettle Island as a
first priority project for implementation. However, staff do not agree
with the protection of all nine remaining crossing options as it will prolong a
sense of uncertainty within the community and at the same time will limit any
development potential at these sites.
Staff has recommended to the NCC consultants that further analysis
should be undertaken to narrow the choices and justify the location of
additional crossings.
Legal Opinion
Legal Services has provided the following comment:
1.
Council has not taken a position in
this term on where a west-end bridge should be, although it has taken a
position of where it should not be (Lac Deschenes). The results of the technical evaluation are such as to not
recommend a west-end bridge location at this time. There is no procedural impediment to motions concerning the
position of Council with respect to a west-end bridge other than in respect to
any crossing over Lac Deschenes.
2.
Council has endorsed Kettle Island
as a location for an east-end bridge as adopted at the Council meeting of 27
June 2007 as follows:
“That the City of Ottawa recommend that the Terms of
Reference of the Interprovincial Crossing EA Study be amended so as to reflect
the City of Ottawa’s position that, if there is to be an east-end bridge
crossing, it be located at Kettle Island.”
It is staff's opinion that there is no new
information since the Council decision of 27 June 2007 that would cause one to
believe that a different decision would have
been arrived at if the information in the technical evaluation were known at
the time the above recommendation was adopted.
As such, no motion is required at this time to endorse
the Kettle Island option, and a motion to identify a different option would be
out of order, unless the mover could convince the Chair or Mayor that, contrary
to the view expressed above, there is indeed new information that would have
likely led to a different result in June, 2007.
The NCC is looking for an endorsement
from the City of Ottawa, City of Gatineau, MTO and MTQ to proceed to Phase 2 of
the EA study prior to their board meeting on January 22, 2009.
Original signed by:
Nancy Schepers
Attach. 2
cc: Kent Kirkpatrick, John Moser, Vivi Chi, Mona Abouhenidy