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The City of Ottawa says it will speed up construction work on Highway 417 to finish three weeks earlier than scheduled.
In a memo to city councillors on Monday afternoon, rail construction program director Richard Holder said new measures should see traffic lanes open by July 6, instead of July 28.
Lane closures caused by work on the western expansion of Ottawa’s light-rail transit system have been wreaking havoc on commutes.
“We recognize the inconvenience this has caused for commuters and nearby communities who have faced increases in cut-through traffic,” Holder wrote.
Earlier this month, the city said some of the closures along the highway between Woodroffe Avenue and Greenbank Road are due to new Ministry of Transportation signage that’s being installed. That work is occurring in the highway median and is bundled with the nearby Stage 2 LRT expansion.
Holder said in the memo that crews have been told to accelerate the work by extending hours into evenings and weekends.
Over the weekend, the city opened up a westbound bus-only ramp at Woodroffe Avenue to cars.
The city is also “optimizing and adjusting traffic signal timing on arterial roads,” adding new signage and looking at traffic calming measures, according to the memo.