It’s official: the city will look at separating train traffic from cars at five west-end intersections, after a deadly crash killed six in 2013.
METRO FILE
The city will consider separating tracks from traffic this year.
City manager Kent Kirkpatrick wrote the federal Transportation Safety Board last week outlining plans to study five west-end rail crossings this year.
The $250,000 study will see if underpasses or overpasses are necessary – or even feasible – at the tracks.
The study comes from the TSB’s recommendation last December that Ottawa revisit three level crossings in the wake of a deadly crash between an OC Transpo bus and a VIA train in Barrhaven in 2013.
Fallowfield Road, Woodroffe Avenue and the Transitway are a given, but the study will also include Merivale and Jockvale Roads to make the most of the consultant’s work. Two other crossings – Greenbank Road and Strandherd Drive – aren’t included because they’re already being grade-separated.
Over 10 months, a consultant will consider traffic levels, best practices and costs, as well as options for improving the status quo.
The former regional municipality went down this road in the 1990s, but grade separation was abandoned because of costs and geotechnical issues.
Mayor Jim Watson has said federal funds will be necessary to afford any new infrastructure.
A report will be tabled some time in 2017.
Source: Metro News