Meeting shows bridge, road repairs on track
Posted Feb 5, 2010 By Sheena Bolton
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EMC News Last month, local businesspeople and political representatives were told the tender for the Strandherd-Armstrong Bridge will take place this spring, with an expected completion date of late 2011.
Sheena Bolton, Ottawa South EMC
Riverside South business representatives and area politicians including (right to left) Jim Watson, MPP for Ottawa West-Nepean, Pierre Poilievre, MP for Nepean-Carleton, and Gloucester-South Nepean Coun. Steve Desroches received an update from the city last week regarding the widening of Earl Armstrong Rd. and the Strandherd-Armstrong Bridge.
Gloucester-South Nepean Coun. Steve Desroches recently hosted an update meeting about the Strandherd-Armstrong Bridge project and the widening of Earl Armstrong Rd., where Richard Holder, acting manager of municipal rehabilitation at the city, explained the expectation is that five or six companies will compete for tender of the bridge.
"We have almost all approvals in place and in terms of funding we are still looking at $48 million," said Mr. Holder.
The bridge is a $48-million project and will receive money from the Building Canada Fund. The city will pay one-third, as will the federal and provincial governments.
The Strandherd-Armstrong Bridge will span 125 metres from Prince of Wales Dr. in Nepean to the intersection of Earl Armstrong and River Rd. in Riverside South.
The bridge will sit 6.7 metres above the water and will have 10 lanes in total, plus pedestrian lanes.
"One of the key aspects of the bridge is that it's spanning over a UNESCO World Heritage Site so we've had a lot of interest from all approval agencies ... including the National Capital Commission, to make sure the design was appropriate for this area," Mr. Holder noted.
The city is waiting on final comments about the design, which will be finalized before proceeding to tender.
"It has been a long time coming, but I'm very confident we will meet the deadlines with everything on budget..." said Jim Watson, former minister of municipal affairs and housing, at the meeting.
Spanning 3.5 kilometres, the widening of Earl Armstrong Rd. from Limebank Rd. to River Rd. will add two additional lanes of traffic.
Construction is currently underway for this $35-million project, which is being funded through the federal/provincial stimulus program.
Rock Fortier, senior engineer at the city, explained that the project was tendered at the end of July and awarded in August 2009. Construction started in mid September.
"Currently $4.5 million has been constructed, this is just shy of the $5-million projected, but ... we will catch up, so we are on budget," Mr. Fortier explained.
In May 2010 the northern lanes will be complete and traffic will be moved to accommodate work on the south end lanes.
The city will be closing Earl Armstrong Rd. from Spratt Rd. to Limebank Rd. for the summer.
"We are doing those restrictions because of the tight timelines we have. With any normal project we would try to leave some circulation, although fire trucks will still be able to use the road," said Coun. Desroches.
With the tight deadlines set in accordance with guidelines to receive the stimulus funding, this project has been shortened to 18 months to complete instead of the typical two-and-a-half year span.
"These projects are happening pretty fast and Earl Armstrong is a project that contractors and staff are working night and day on because we need to meet some pretty tight deadlines," Coun. Desroches explained.
"We have a really good team."
