Ottawa taking ‘proactive steps’ to avoid Stage 2 LRT delays: memo

The City of Ottawa says it’s taking steps to make sure pressures from the COVID-19 pandemic and other construction delays don’t set back the delivery of Stage 2 of light-rail transit in the nation’s capital.

A memo sent to city councillors from Ottawa rail director Michael Morgan on Friday afternoon said city staff are taking “proactive steps”; to ensure the east-west extension to Ottawa LRT doesn’t face any schedule impacts like the ones already flagged by the team building the Trillium Line expansion to the south.

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These steps are mainly in the form of construction schedule shifts and traffic detours.

In the west, the closure of the Woodroffe Avenue and Richmond Road intersection is being extended through May and westbound traffic on Ambleside Drive will soon be detoured, according to the memo.

On the east side of Ottawa, Morgan said the city is providing “flexibility”; on the timing of lane closures on Montreal Road, a location he noted is on the project’s “critical path.”;

These closures began in early April and are expected to last to mid-July, according to construction updates on the city's LRT website, as part of construction of a new bridge within the median of the Highway 174 interchange.

Check this out! #Stage2 crews are making amazing progress on the #OTrainEastExtension with 14 out of 21 girders installed on the Blair Station to 174 Median Rail Bridge since Wednesday! #OttLRT #Stage2MajorProgress pic.twitter.com/eiXgj0YmRj

— Tim Tierney (@TimTierney) April 30, 2021

“In addition to adding float to the schedule, these adjustments reduce the duration of construction in these specific neighbourhoods,”; Morgan wrote in the memo.

The team building the Trillium Line extension, a subsidiary of SNC-Lavalin, flagged to the city earlier this year that there could be delays in handing over the line of up to 40 days, though reports from CBC put this figure at 116 days.

The city said it would work with the contractor to see if impacts could be mitigated or avoided altogether.

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Construction on this part of the extension remains on track for the second quarter of 2022, Morgan said in his memo on Friday. This portion of Stage 2 LRT is scheduled for handover to the city in August 2022.

Delivery of the trains for Stage 2 has not been affected by the pandemic at this point, either from Alstom’s manufacturing facility in Brampton or the Stadler site in Switzerland.

Vehicle deliveries have continued unabated from Brampton and the initial shipments of trains from Switzerland are still set to begin later this year as scheduled.

So far, the city has spent $1.46 billion on construction and train purchasing for the $4.66-billion project, Morgan said in his memo.

When complete, Stage 2 of LRT in Ottawa will connect Moodie Drive in the west, Trim Road in the east and down to Limebank Road and the Ottawa International Airport in the south.