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Ahead of Victoria Day and the unofficial start of summer, the City of Ottawa has announced its plans for the upcoming construction season.<\/p>\n
City officials are asking residents to be patient with the disruption caused by projects like the widening of south Bank Street, Lansdowne 2.0, and Line 1’s expansion into the city\u2019s east and west ends.<\/p>\n
Ottawa manages about 700 infrastructure projects every year, with much of the construction done in the summer months where temperatures are warm.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The influx of projects has disrupted the routines of many residents, but public works and infrastructure committee chair Coun. Tim Tierney says the work is necessary.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s going to be some pain, but taxpayers will see their roads getting resurfaced, and they will see new sidewalks and a lot of the things they want to see,\u201d Tierney said.<\/p>\n
$690M in infrastructure spending<\/p>\n
Ottawa is projected to welcome 530,000 new residents by 2051, with an average increase of 20,000 newcomers every year.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mayor Mark Sutcliffe says the latest slate of infrastructure projects is designed to support Ottawa\u2019s growth.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s vitally important that we are investing in our roads, sidewalks, water infrastructure and transit routes,\u201d Sutcliffe told reporters on Friday.<\/p>\n
In 2026, the city plans to spend over $691 million on infrastructure projects that will include repairs to roads, bridges and sidewalks and reconstruction of sewer systems.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Solutions to highway 417 construction\u00a0<\/p>\n
One project that is a driving force of frustration for commuters has been the lane reductions along the Highway 417 exits near Woodroffe Avenue.<\/p>\n
The reductions are caused by construction from the O-Train expansion.<\/p>\n
According to OC Transpo, lane closures will be in effect until July 28, with one lane out of commission in both directions.<\/p>\n
For west end resident Brandon Palen, the traffic congestion has caused his 25-minute commute to take up to 45 minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe work needs to get done, but unfortunately it’s at the expense of our time,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As a part of his construction season announcement, Sutcliffe said he was \u201cdisappointed\u201d with how the construction is being handled.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there is a better way to manage that without having to close the lane during rush hour in the morning and afternoon,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to pace ourselves on some of that work and see if we can do it on weekends and in the evenings instead of during rush hours.\u201d <\/p>\n
Traffic services and OC Transpo are working closely with the contractor to review potential options to help alleviate congestion, the city said in an emailed statement Thursday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":["post-673064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}