By Alex Abdelwahab, Ottawa Metro News, June 19, 2017
OC Transpo will be starting its summer service on Sunday, including a new round of route changes that might affect the number on the front of the bus you take to work.
As of Sunday, 15 bus routes will have new numbers, 43 routes will see changes to service, and a brand new route, 179, will be launched.
Among the route-number changes, say goodbye to the 1, which will become the 6. The Confederation Line will be known as Line 1 when it opens.
By Ottawa Community News, June 19, 2017
On June 16, Cumberland Coun. Stephen Blais and Francis Drouin, MP (Glengarry-Prescott-Russell) announced $1.89 million to build a cycling connection between Orléans and Cumberland Village.
“Rural Cumberland is a beautiful environment for a range of recreational activities,” says Blais. “This investment will allow us to create a connection allowing Cumberland residents to easily access Orléans, and expose Orléans residents to the beautiful environment and amazing small businesses in Cumberland village.
”Paved shoulders will be built on Old Montreal Road from Famille-Laporte Avenue east to Cox Country Road. They will continue south on Cox Country Road to Wilhaven Drive. Existing shoulders on Dunning Road will be extended south from Brickland Drive to Wilhaven Drive.
By Brier Dodge, Ottawa Community News, June 16, 2017
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau formally announced $1.15 billion in funding for LRT Stage 2 in Ottawa, which includes extending light rail to Trim Road and the airport.
The Stage 2 project will be built in phases, with the airport line and spur being built first and due to open in 2021. The east line line will follow, with a planned 2022 opening.
The west extension to Moodie Drive will open the following year. Orléans MP Andrew Leslie had confirmed March's federal budget included funding for Phase 2 of the LRT project at a breakfast he hosted on April 3.
By David Sharpe and Leslie Carter, Ottawa Citizen Letters to the Editor, June 14, 2017
LRT soiling Jacques Gréber’s legacy
Re: The Capital Builders: Mackenzie King and Gréber remade Ottawa, June 12
David Reveley’s article on Jacques Gréber mentioned that Mackenzie King was enraptured with Gréber’s idea of covering rail lines by hiding them under parkland.It is strange to note that current LRT planning has a rail line dissecting Ottawa parks, especially Connaught Park, instead of going around.
The Gréber Greenbelt is perhaps his best known planning element for Ottawa; however, community associations in the west end are very upset above the pending loss of green space in the Gréber Greenbelt due to LRT routing.
By Matthew Pearson, Ottawa Citizen, June 15, 2017
A pilot project proposing a tougher crackdown on piles of trash and containers strewn about multi-residential properties in Sandy Hill was picked up Thursday by the community and protective services committee.
Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury says complaints related to garbage are on the rise and so-called “bunkhouses” that have several rented rooms in each unit aren’t helping. Because there are more people living in these buildings than the detached homes or duplexes they have replaced, there’s more trash building up in storage areas on the properties and at the curb each garbage day.
It costs more money to pick up the heaps of trash and recycling each week, and to enforce property standards, he said.
By Matthew Pearson, Ottawa Citizen, June 16, 2017
Ottawa’s LRT builder has nearly reached the half-way mark of its busiest year of construction.Work by the Rideau Transit Group is underway at all 13 Confederation LRT Line stations and the 12.5-kilometre rail line that connects them.
Close to nine kilometres of track in either direction has either been laid or is in the process of being laid along the mainline and more than one-third of the overhead wires used to power the trains have been installed. Thirteen Alstom Citadis light rail vehicles are fully assembled (of the total 34).
By Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen, June 19, 2017
OC Transpo wants to earmark $4.8 million for training about 100 staff before the Confederation Line opens next year, another cost that falls outside of the $2.1-billion LRT contract.
Troy Charter, director of transit operations, said the price tag largely covers costs for staff who need to be trained in advance of the LRT line opening in 2018.
“It’s about making sure our staff are operationally ready Day 1,” Charter said in an interview Monday.
CBC News, 1st June, 2017.
Get ready for another rainy, windy day in the capital, but it seems a thunderstorm is not in the cards.Thursday's forecast calls for a mainly cloudy day with a 60 per cent chance of showers late in the afternoon. A west wind gusts from 30 to 50 kilometres per hour in the morning.
By Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen, May 31st, 2017.
More than a foot of rain in the past two months has washed away all kinds of weather records in Ottawa.Wettest May. Wettest April and May combined. Wettest spring. (The weather office defines spring as March 1 through May 31.) Rainiest first five months of the year.And most of these are records not by a millimetre, but by huge margins.May (measured through Tuesday) had a record of 175.6 millimetres of rain at the Ottawa International Airport, more than double the average of 86. Records there go back to 1939.“If it was just May, then nobody would feel sorry for you,” said David Phillips, senior climatologist at Environment Canada. But there’s much more:
CTV News, May 30th, 2017.
Despite another good soaking that's making residents nervous, it's unlikely Ottawa and region will see any more flooding."When you get a bit of rain, there's a bit of reflection," says Brian Proskurniak.
The Constance Bay resident says he got off easy with only a couple of inches of water in his basement. Still, more than a foot of drywall has been removed and the floor stripped bare.
Proskurniak has a new sense of awe for the Ottawa River and the forecast makes him nervous.
By Alex Abdelwahab, Metro News, May 30th, 2017.
Ontario has released more details of its previously announced plan to fund more bike lanes this year.In its budget, the province had promised $50 million from its cap and trade carbon program for commuter cycling infrastructure. The money would be used for “cycling lanes separated by a curb and cycling signals.”On Monday, the provincial government launched its Ontario Municipal Commuter Cycling Program (OMCCP), which will run for four. It will support up to 80 per cent of the cost.
By Megan Gillis, Ottawa Sun, May 30th, 2017.
After besting a May 29 record for rain and winding down a month where we’ve already more than doubled typical precipitation, there’s a risk of thunderstorms Tuesday and Wednesday and a risk of showers every day through Friday.