Political pushback on proposed Kettle Island Bridge
It's been a proposal for years as a solution to decrease traffic in the downtown core and remove trucks from the Lowertown neighbourhood.
The National Capital Commission (NCC) is one week into public consultations on the proposed Kettle Island Bridge. However, there's been some pushback from politicians.
The Kettle Island Bridge would be built over the Ottawa River to connect Ottawa and Gatineau, crossing Kettle Island and connection the Aviation Parkway to Montée Paiement.
Robin Roberts commutes between Quebec and Ontario every day for work. Traffic along the stretch of King Edward Avenue makes it difficult.
'I take it every day. It's very busy. It's very difficult. On top of which, there's often a lot of pedestrians that are in the way and the trucks just make it more difficult to navigate back and forth,' said Roberts, who commutes between Quebec and Ontario.
Roberts says a new interprovincial bridge would help.
'If they had a different alternative route, it would save us a lot of time, considering I'm the one going to the Quebec side every day,' said Roberts.
The Liberal government has committed to building the Kettle Island Bridge, but Liberal MP Mona Fortier is against the idea.
Fortier wrote in a letter to her constituents: 'The eastern bridge project via Kettle Island, specifically the corridor between the Aviation Parkway and Montée Paiement does not meet Ottawa's needs. It does not guarantee the removal of heavy trucks from the King Edward corridor, which is a crucial issue for safety, air quality and traffic flow in the downtown core.'
The long-time controversial project would cost billions, but is something many in the Lowertown neighbourhood support.
'For 60 years, this community has been dealing with an unacceptable situation where we have trucks and many 18-wheelers, thousands of them per day, circulating right through the middle of our neighborhood and just mere meters of where people live,' said Sylvie Bigras, president of the Lowertown Community Association.
Meanwhile, Ottawa councillor Tim Tierney says the solution for traffic is a southern ring road, not another bridge.
'We're pretty much the only capital that doesn't have an alternative route to go east-west,' said Tierney. 'We want to give alternative options to people to be able to say, maybe I don't want to go through downtown, maybe I want to skip out to Barrhaven.'
The new bridge at Kettle Island could be completed between 2032 and 2034. The online survey from the NCC on the early planning and design is available until July 10.
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