Concerns, questions remain regarding Pimisi Station reliability

A local architect is questioning the safety and reliability of Pimisi Station that would transport event-goers to and from a future arena at Lebreton Flats.

Toon Dreessen, former president of the Ontario Architects Association and current president of Architects DCA, told The Sam Laprade Show with guest host Derick Fage on July 24, while Ottawa’s LRT is offline again, more needs to be done to improve our LRT system’s functionality and reliability.

“I’m questioning why Pimisi Station was closed for the majority of users on Canada day,” said Dreeseen. “Was it an overreaction on the part of Canadian Heritage that there could be a security threat, and if so, what does that do for other events that might be staged at Lebreton Flats and does this suggest the station isn’t right for events?”

According to Dreessen, part of the challenge of Ottawa’s LRT is related to the procurement process initiated over a decade ago.

“We set out design parameters and expectations, and we got the system that we have today,” he explained. “It’s engineering design, failures, station design, capacity, frequency and reliability are the direct result of that initial request and design parameters we initiated.”

Residents are suffering with the result of the procurement process, Dreessen pointed out. If the product is a transit system that can handle an event – like Bluesfest – with 30,000 people in one day, we can be confident it can handle a concert of 18,000 to 20,000 people. But, he added, what happens if our city grows and demand changes?

“Let’s say a concert goes into the new hockey arena and the venue seats 18,000 people and you open up the floor (for a concert) and suddenly you have 25,000 people, how is our public going to be served (LRT capacity) if an 18,000 person sold-out hockey game is fine but 25,000 for a concert isn’t?” questioned Dreessen.

In addition to safety and reliability issues for residents, the architect voices concerns about LRT failures – like a car becoming stuck in a tunnel – affecting our reputation on an international stage, where we’ve designed a system that does not support our population.

Other concerns include platform design, he added. “We built a state-of-the-art system without platform edge barriers that you see in other cities, where a barrier at the edge of the platform is interlocked with doors on the train so when the train doors up, this prevents people from falling onto the tracks.”

This addition to the current design would help prevent those suffering with mental health issues from harming themselves, as well as keep stations warmer during the colder months, as platform barriers can be fully enclosed.

“There’s costs associated with doing this (platform barriers) but there’s social and societal benefits to having that kind of change,” explained Dreessen. “I struggle with things when a budget of $2.1 billion dollars becomes a hard cap and we loose the opportunity to make something better by having a better design.”