City to ask for cash for truck tunnel environmental assessment
Posted Sep 7, 2016 08:41:21 AM.
Last Updated Sep 7, 2016 12:29:26 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA – The city’s transportation committee has voted for Mayor Jim Watson to approach the province and federal government for cash that would help pay for an environmental assessment of a truck tunnel connecting Ottawa and Gatineau.
The City of Ottawa recently competed a feasibility study, along with provincial funding, examining the possibility of developing a tunnel to ease heavy truck-traffic in the downtown core.
The province pitched in funding for the $750,000 study, that finds a truck tunnel is technically possible. According to the study, the preliminary cost estimate for construction is between $1.7 billion and $2 billion.
“The significant heavy-truck traffic moving between Ottawa and Gatineau has long been a major issue for residents as well as for those visiting Canada’s capital,” says Mayor Jim Watson. “This report should equip us with the information we need to make a case to the provincial and federal governments on how best to move forward towards a solution that works for all.”
The proposed route would allow large trucks to travel from Highway 417 to the MacDonald-Cartier Bridge and into Quebec.
