Strandherd-Armstrong Bridge | 21.3 m | Completed

[MaxHeadroom]

With traffic lights at each end, this bridge is going to become another rush hour parking lot just like the Michael J.E. Sheflin that carries Hunt Club, and another collision hot spot. For the price that was paid, there should have been an interchange at each end, which would have increased the carrying capacity.

[1overcosc]

Originally Posted by MaxHeadroom

With traffic lights at each end, this bridge is going to become another rush hour parking lot just like the Michael J.E. Sheflin that carries Hunt Club, and another collision hot spot. For the price that was paid, there should have been an interchange at each end, which would have increased the carrying capacity.

That would have required a higher level bridge which would have significantly increased the cost.

I think that interchanging Riverside & Prince of Wales along Hunt Club is something the city should be doing in the medium-term. Another bridge across the Rideau by extending Fallowfield over to River Rd. might be justified too at some point in the next few decades.

In the long run, the city should be aiming to gradually control-access-ify Hunt Club. Ban new driveways along it, look at taking off accessways where possible by shifting business access onto nearby N-S streets or parallel roadways, and replace the busiest intersections with interchanges. Basically gradually turn the road into more of an expressway-type road.

To minimize impact on surrounding neighbourhoods, eliminate the grass median, replace it with a tall wall, and shift the lanes inward to reduce the width of the cross-section. Use the new space on the outer ends to plant a thick layer of trees, while leaving enough space to allow for the entire corridor to become 6 lanes in the future.

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

South 'burbs hope Strandherd bridge is a savior

By Jon Willing, Ottawa Sun
First posted: Wednesday, July 16, 2014 05:05 PM EDT | Updated: Wednesday, July 16, 2014 05:10 PM EDT

The hellish traffic on Hunt Club Rd. will be saved from gridlock thanks to the new Strandherd Armstrong Bridge.

Well, that has always been the hope. Suburban residents are crossing their fingers that the $48-million bridge will be their saviour.

It probably won’t be until September that the city gets a good idea how motorists are responding to the new bridge, once summer vacations are finished and roads are packed with cars.

Two of the busiest intersections in the city are at Hunt Club on both sides of the Rideau River. It’s probably by no coincidence the intersections at Riverside Dr. and Prince of Wales Dr. consistently show up in the list of top collision sites in the city.

For workers just looking to get to their suburban homes after a long day of work, the southbound commute can be terribly unpredictable.

Chris Hill works in the heart of downtown and the drive to his home in Riverside South is anywhere between 20 and 60 minutes.

“It all hinges on Hunt Club and to the extent it gets backed up,” Hill said Wednesday.

So far, there hasn’t been a major impact for north-south commuters since the bridge opened last weekend.

“What people are uncertain of if how this will make things better or worse from a north-south perspective,” said Hill, president of the Riverside South Community Association.

For example, southbound Barrhaven residents on Riverside Dr. could cross Hunt Club and continue to the bridge, rather than face bumper-to-bumper traffic over the Hunt Club bridge. Same goes for Riverside South residents trying to get home via Prince of Wales.

The problem is, no one knows what other motorists will do. Hill said it will be a “gamble” for residents.

“Psychologically, we’re all trying to struggle with the same types of things,” he said.

The city is monitoring traffic patterns and adjusting traffic signals based on public feedback and what staff observe on traffic cameras.

City traffic services manager Phil Landry said all travellers ­— motorists, pedestrians and cyclists — are making good use of the bridge so far.

“We anticipate that summer holiday traffic will return to normal volumes at the end of August and peak during the first week of September,” Landry said in an e-mail. “Up to that point, we expect that motorists will be testing different routes and traffic volumes will shift on the various corridors leading to the Strandherd-Armstrong Bridge.”


Twitter: @JonathanWilling

http://www.ottawasun.com/2014/07/16/...ge-is-a-savior

I am no traffic expert but how could an east west bridge alleviate traffic that is bad north to south on both sides of the river?

[DarkArconio]

Originally Posted by YOWetal

I am no traffic expert but how could an east west bridge alleviate traffic that is bad north to south on both sides of the river?

Neither am I, but I suspect it has to do with the efficiency of through traffic in intersections compared to left turning traffic.

[MaxHeadroom]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

I think that interchanging Riverside & Prince of Wales along Hunt Club is something the city should be doing in the medium-term.

Never going to happen, Ottawa will never build another municipal interchange. City planners are so obsessed with trains and bike lanes that they don't care if buses are stuck in traffic for hours, too.

But imagine what chaos would ensue if they switched them to roundabouts!!!

[1overcosc]

Originally Posted by MaxHeadroom

But imagine what chaos would ensue if they switched them to roundabouts!!!

Roundabouts probably wouldn't be a great idea on Hunt Club, but I honestly think there's plenty of high-volume intersections throughout Ottawa that would work well with roundabouts. I've always thought Carling would be great for roundabouts on the section east of Civic Hospital. Bank/Chamberlain would also make a great roundabout IMO.

There seems to be some sort of anti-roundabout anger in Ontario which I've never quite understood. They perform very well when people use them properly. And as more roundabouts are being built, more people are getting comfortable with them. Stupid things like stopping on the circle to let people in are becoming rarer now.

In Embrun & Almonte the main intersections at the town entrances were recently replaced with roundabouts, and both roundabouts work very well and were a huge improvement over the previous setup.

On the topic of Carling**... that road is the opposite of Hunt Club, it's actually underutilized. It's actually very easy to jaywalk across Carling** even at rush hour! Whereas on Hunt Club, jaywalking is a suicide mission. I think Carling must have been built to its current width in an earlier age where it had more usefulness as an east-west route than it does now.

**For the eastern part of Carling at least. I've never been to Carling west of Kirkwood. My comments are based on the realities I see around the Hospital, the Farm, and Little Italy.

[MountainView]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

Roundabouts probably wouldn't be a great idea on Hunt Club, but I honestly think there's plenty of high-volume intersections throughout Ottawa that would work well with roundabouts. I've always thought Carling would be great for roundabouts on the section east of Civic Hospital. Bank/Chamberlain would also make a great roundabout IMO.

There seems to be some sort of anti-roundabout anger in Ontario which I've never quite understood. They perform very well when people use them properly. And as more roundabouts are being built, more people are getting comfortable with them. Stupid things like stopping on the circle to let people in are becoming rarer now.

In Embrun & Almonte the main intersections at the town entrances were recently replaced with roundabouts, and both roundabouts work very well and were a huge improvement over the previous setup.

On the topic of Carling**... that road is the opposite of Hunt Club, it's actually underutilized. It's actually very easy to jaywalk across Carling** even at rush hour! Whereas on Hunt Club, jaywalking is a suicide mission. I think Carling must have been built to its current width in an earlier age where it had more usefulness as an east-west route than it does now.

**For the eastern part of Carling at least. I've never been to Carling west of Kirkwood. My comments are based on the realities I see around the Hospital, the Farm, and Little Italy.

Carling west of Kirkwood is a nightmare at rush hours. I avoid it like the plague, it's usually gridlocked Pinecrest to Woodroffe (maybe not that far but at least the Parkway) heading west in PM rush hour. So many cars getting off the Parkway and heading west onto Carling.

I agree however, that east of Kirkwood Carling is relatively easy moving. I do notice some volume Merivale to Parkdale in the morning heading east though.

[DarkArconio]

Roundabouts don't really work for high volume intersections and take up an enormous amount of space. Any roundabouts at high volume intersections in europe have lights at every entry and exit from the roundabout, and take up an order of magnitude more of space, so the costs would be dramatically higher. Grade separation may often be cheaper, and very likely is in the case of the hunt club bridge.

That said, reducing traffic on roads only serves to increase supply, and therefore demand and traffic in the long term. Investing in more efficient and cost effective forms of transportation over cars makes sense.

[teej1984]

The roundabout in Orléans works fabulously and that is quite a high-volume intersection!

[IntoTheCore]

Originally Posted by teej1984

The roundabout in Orléans works fabulously and that is quite a high-volume intersection!

I remember there being a significant amount of pushback when that was being planned (ex: http://www.orleansstar.ca/Opinion/Le...oundabout%3F/1).

Two years later, Councillors Blais and Monette had changed their opinions on roundabouts: http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/01/23/...anned-for-trim.

[DarkArconio]

Originally Posted by teej1984

The roundabout in Orléans works fabulously and that is quite a high-volume intersection!

I'm not sure where I could find figures for this, but I would bet the busiest intersections along hunt club, woodroffe, and riverside are up to an order of magnitude busier than a two lane roundabout in eastern orleans.

[hwy418]

Originally Posted by DarkArconio

I'm not sure where I could find figures for this, but I would bet the busiest intersections along hunt club, woodroffe, and riverside are up to an order of magnitude busier than a two lane roundabout in eastern orleans.

For sure, St. Joseph and Jeanne D'Arc are not 6 to 8 lanes wide at the approaches. However, as someone who uses this roundabout daily it's amazing how much traffic it can handle. They should put one in at the future Brian Coburn extension/connection to the Blackburn Bypass!

[DarkArconio]

I agree about the utility of roundabouts and their increased safety and traffic flow. I just don't think that there would be a cost effective way of implementing one around the hunt club bridge due to traffic volumes. The new bridge, an o-train extension, plus possibly improved connections around the airport to the parkway in the future, these seem like the best strategies going forward and the ones the city is likeliest to follow. Anything that diverts traffic from crossing the hunt club bridge itself.

[Kitchissippi]

Took some photos while paddling today:

[rocketphish]

Call new Strandherd-Armstrong span 'Vimy Bridge', veterans say

Andrew Seymour, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: July 20, 2014, Last Updated: July 20, 2014 9:05 PM EDT

Veterans on either side of the Rideau River have banded together to ask the city to consider naming Ottawa’s newest bridge after one of Canada’s greatest military victories.

The Royal Canadian Legion branches in Manotick and Barrhaven suggest the recently opened Strandherd-Armstrong bridge be named Vimy Bridge.

“Vimy Ridge was one of the greatest battles in World War I,” said Ernie Hughes, president of the Barrhaven Legion. “It brought Canada together as a nation at that time and we were a force to be dealt with in the future. That’s why Vimy Bridge, to me, means an awful lot, and an awful lot to our veterans.”

The battle of Vimy Ridge is seen as a defining moment in Canada’s history. The three-day battle took place in northern France in April 1917 and claimed 3,598 Canadian lives. Another 7,000 were wounded, but the victory was significant.

The Strandherd-Armstrong bridge, which officially opened two weeks ago, cost $48 million to build and opened two years later than expected. The mayor dubbed it Ottawa’s version of the Eiffel Tower at the opening ceremony.

The city’s south end is also home to the Veterans Memorial Highway and John McCrae Secondary School, named after the First World War poet and doctor who wrote In Flanders Fields.

Gloucester-Southgate Coun. Steve Desroches said he believes the suggestion Vimy Bridge is “a very good one” and an “excellent starting point” for a discussion about a new name.

“My view was that the bridge naming would be of a national significance given our role as the nation’s capital,” said Desroches. “The focus to date has been 100 per cent on completing the project and getting it open to traffic and buses, and now that we’ve reached that milestone, I think it’s the right time to talk about the future name of the bridge.”

Vimy Bridge also has the support of Nepean-Carleton MP and federal Minister of State for Democratic Reform Pierre Poilievre.

“The bridge should in some way honour soldiers, veterans and war dead,” he said Sunday.

Polievre said the 100th anniversary of the battle is approaching in 2017, making the name a fitting tribute.

“There are a lot of good chronological reasons to devote this bridge to the memory of one of Canada’s great battles,” said Poilievre. “It is a major symbol of Canadian unity and military independence. I think the community would entirely approve of the Legion’s suggestion.”

Desroches said whatever name is chosen, it will have to follow the city’s commemorative naming process.

The two legions have already sent a letter to the city clerk’s office asking that the name be considered.

“We feel this is an appropriate way to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I and the epic battle of Vimy Ridge led by Canadians in one of their greatest victories,” read the letter. “The renaming of the bridge will also ensure that World War I troops will not be easily forgotten and the great sacrifice they made for us all.”

On Sunday, Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson tweeted the name idea out to his 37,000 followers. The response was positive, although a few suggested names that paid tribute to more recent campaigns, including the one in Afghanistan.

[pd.twitter id="https://twitter.com/JimWatsonOttawa/status/490847463557693440"]

“Our members like it,” said Barry Young, president of Manotick Legion who co-signed the letter. “It is just remembrance and commemoration of veterans.”

Hughes said both legions recognize the city will have to follow the commemorative naming process and that public consultation will be crucial.

If Vimy Bridge is selected, Hughes would like to see his legion form up on one side of the bridge accompanied by their cadet corps and the Manotick legion form up on the other side to meet in the middle during a dedication ceremony.

“We could put a lot of colour on that bridge, if it goes through,” said Hughes. “Everybody who fought over there in that battle still have sons, daughters, grandsons and great-grandsons and all that. It’s a way to honour these people.”

aseymour@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/andrew_seymour

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-...e-veterans-say

[Capital Shaun]

Originally Posted by Kitchissippi

Took some photos while paddling today:

I really like the look of this bridge in the pictures I've seen. Some day I'll have to check in out in person as I'm rarely near the southern suburbs.

[Norman Bates]

Okay - this Vimy bridge thing is just beyond the pale for me.

I've been to the Vimy memorial in France. It is not portrayed as a great victory there. It is portrayed as an enormous waste of human life and potential.

The memorial is striking beyond anything I've ever seen in Canada. In fact, it is one of only two national historic sites located outside of Canada. (The other at Beaumont Hamel that I also have visited.)

To name this bridge after Vimy is diminishing the true significance of that sacred place. And the myopic basement bombardiers that populate the Barrhaven Legion (never been to the Manotick one) should wake up and realize that what they propose is an indignity to the true heroes. Those teenagers and 20 somethings (like members of my family) that lie buried in France. Not some group of middle aged wannabes who parrot lines from the CFRA nation.

[McKellarDweller]

Originally Posted by Kitchissippi

Took some photos while paddling today:

Cool!

[Capital Shaun]

Originally Posted by Norman Bates

Okay - this Vimy bridge thing is just beyond the pale for me.

When I first heard the suggestion I rolled my eyes. The word play on ridge & bridge is just too tacky for me. It's still a slight improvement over naming something after a living active politician but still, Ottawa already has lots of places commemorating our military history.

[Ottawan]

Originally Posted by Capital Shaun

When I first heard the suggestion I rolled my eyes. The word play on ridge & bridge is just too tacky for me.

Exactly.