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A councillor wants the National Capital Commission’s CEO to explain why the Hog’s Back Road swing bridge keeps conking out.
River Coun. Riley Brockington wrote to Mark Kristmanson on Tuesday asking the NCC head to explain why the bridge keeps malfunctioning and what the federal agency is doing to fix it.
Brockington said there have been a half-dozen incidents of the bridge malfunctioning this summer, affecting traffic on city roads. It happened again for a brief time on Wednesday.
Hog's Back closed from Colonel By to Prince of Wales – bridge repairs. Duration unknown. Use other routes. #otttraffic
— Ottawa_Traffic (@Ottawa_Traffic) August 22, 2017
There was an extended closure last April for maintenance that lasted longer than expected.
The bridge, which operates on a hydraulic system, is a critical connection for north-south commuters trying to access downtown.
A popular route from the southern suburbs is travelling north on Riverside Drive or Prince of Wales Drive and cutting across Hog’s Back to Colonel By Drive.
Northbound traffic on Prince of Wales Drive must continue on the road when the bridge is out. Southbound traffic on Colonel By Drive has only one option — Riverside Drive.
“Riverside Drive becomes a parking lot and Prince of Wales Drive, same thing,” Brockington said in an interview.
Brockington is particularly worried about what will happen when the school year begins and there will be more traffic on city roads. He also has his eye on a future road project on Prince of Wales Drive south of Baseline Road that will make travelling precarious if Colonel By Drive isn’t always accessible from Hog’s Back.
In his letter to Kristmanson, Brockington cites multiple bridge closures in 2016 and 2017, although there have been ongoing maintenance issues with the bridge for a few years.
“When this happens during the afternoon rush hour in particular, the effects are significant,” Brockington wrote. “Repairs to the hydraulic system in 2017 were to address the unplanned, short-term closures, yet they have continued throughout the summer. This needs to be addressed once and for all.”
Brockington told Kristmanson that when the bridge isn’t working, all road users are affected, including cyclists and pedestrians. Other roads clog up, which affects transit service, Brockington wrote.
The city’s traffic branch feels the brunt of the bridge problems, since it needs to adjust signal timing, deploy message boards and call in extra staff, Brockington noted.
“All of these actions incur a significant cost to the City of Ottawa each time an emergency closure occurs,” Brockington wrote.
NCC spokesman Nicholas Galletti said Brockington’s letter isn’t surprising since the agency has been having problems with the custom 40-year-old bridge.
“We’re constantly monitoring it,” Galletti said.
There were upgrades 10-15 years ago but that work is coming to the end of its lifecycle, Galletti told the Citizen. There has been work on the hydraulics and staff are frequently checking to make sure residue doesn’t build up in the system, he said.
There’s another issue with the electronics and some components no longer exist.
Galletti said the NCC tries to do work on the bridge during off-peak hours and it has been notifying the city whenever there’s a necessary closure.
The NCC is reviewing all its assets to make sure there’s a long-term strategy to manage the infrastructure, Galletti said.
jwilling@postmedia.com
twitter.com/JonathanWilling
查看原文...
River Coun. Riley Brockington wrote to Mark Kristmanson on Tuesday asking the NCC head to explain why the bridge keeps malfunctioning and what the federal agency is doing to fix it.
Brockington said there have been a half-dozen incidents of the bridge malfunctioning this summer, affecting traffic on city roads. It happened again for a brief time on Wednesday.
Hog's Back closed from Colonel By to Prince of Wales – bridge repairs. Duration unknown. Use other routes. #otttraffic
— Ottawa_Traffic (@Ottawa_Traffic) August 22, 2017
There was an extended closure last April for maintenance that lasted longer than expected.
The bridge, which operates on a hydraulic system, is a critical connection for north-south commuters trying to access downtown.
A popular route from the southern suburbs is travelling north on Riverside Drive or Prince of Wales Drive and cutting across Hog’s Back to Colonel By Drive.
Northbound traffic on Prince of Wales Drive must continue on the road when the bridge is out. Southbound traffic on Colonel By Drive has only one option — Riverside Drive.
“Riverside Drive becomes a parking lot and Prince of Wales Drive, same thing,” Brockington said in an interview.
Brockington is particularly worried about what will happen when the school year begins and there will be more traffic on city roads. He also has his eye on a future road project on Prince of Wales Drive south of Baseline Road that will make travelling precarious if Colonel By Drive isn’t always accessible from Hog’s Back.
In his letter to Kristmanson, Brockington cites multiple bridge closures in 2016 and 2017, although there have been ongoing maintenance issues with the bridge for a few years.
“When this happens during the afternoon rush hour in particular, the effects are significant,” Brockington wrote. “Repairs to the hydraulic system in 2017 were to address the unplanned, short-term closures, yet they have continued throughout the summer. This needs to be addressed once and for all.”
Brockington told Kristmanson that when the bridge isn’t working, all road users are affected, including cyclists and pedestrians. Other roads clog up, which affects transit service, Brockington wrote.
The city’s traffic branch feels the brunt of the bridge problems, since it needs to adjust signal timing, deploy message boards and call in extra staff, Brockington noted.
“All of these actions incur a significant cost to the City of Ottawa each time an emergency closure occurs,” Brockington wrote.
NCC spokesman Nicholas Galletti said Brockington’s letter isn’t surprising since the agency has been having problems with the custom 40-year-old bridge.
“We’re constantly monitoring it,” Galletti said.
There were upgrades 10-15 years ago but that work is coming to the end of its lifecycle, Galletti told the Citizen. There has been work on the hydraulics and staff are frequently checking to make sure residue doesn’t build up in the system, he said.
There’s another issue with the electronics and some components no longer exist.
Galletti said the NCC tries to do work on the bridge during off-peak hours and it has been notifying the city whenever there’s a necessary closure.
The NCC is reviewing all its assets to make sure there’s a long-term strategy to manage the infrastructure, Galletti said.
jwilling@postmedia.com
twitter.com/JonathanWilling
查看原文...
