Ottawa approves environmental assessment study for transit project(December 5, 2007 by KORKY KOROLUK, Ottawa Correspondent, Daily Construction News) -- An environmental assessment has been ordered into the possibility of constructing an east-west transit tunnel across Ottawa’s a core. But given the complexity of the proposed project, it will still be two or three years before the city knows whether or not the idea is feasible. If built, the tunnel is likely to be about four kilometres long, but no real estimate of the cost has ever been done. Many people believe it would be something in excess of $500 million. The tunnel is part of new $2 billion transit plan that surfaced about two weeks ago. It is a multi-faceted proposal that would complete the city’s buses-only transitway system to the west and southwest, extend an existing short light rail line to the south, and include building a new light-rail transit (LRT) line to serve the east end. The tunnel under the core area is considered to be key to the proposal, and a decision will be made by spring about the kind of transit vehicles that will run through it. But city officials have said that light rail is clearly favoured. The plan would replace an LRT project that was killed just under a year ago. That plan would have serviced the southern and southwestern districts, and would have crossed the downtown core on existing surface routes, an idea that drew stiff opposition from the downtown business community, already frustrated by streets that have been at or above capacity during rush hour for 10 years. The federal and provincial governments had promised $200 million each toward the cost of the old plan, which would have been about $880 million. Both will be asked to apply the promised money to the new plan instead. Beyond that, funding the new plan is not clear, although the plan would be phased, rather than attacked as a single, large project, as the old plan was to have been. The early priority, council decided Wednesday, will be to finish the westward transitway expansion, together with the environmental assessment of the tunnel. The new scheme is not without it detractors. A spokesman for the lobby group Transportation 2000, said it does not represent a comprehensive plan. Instead, he said, “we’re stuck with a reworking of the old plan.” -- 30--
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