Stage 2 bus detour would connect Scott Street with SJAM parkway

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Buses would buzz the Westboro Beach community after crossing a temporary bridge over an LRT construction zone during a two-year detour at the west end of Scott Street.

“We are very concerned, not only about the buses, but the buses plus the traffic on Scott Street,” Mari Wellman, chair of the Westboro Beach Community Association, said Monday.

“We continue shaking our heads. Scott is just a terrible street.”

The city faces the same challenge as it did before building the first phase of LRT. The tracks are going on the Transitway, so the buses have to go somewhere before the LRT line opens.

Scott Street, which runs parallel to the Transitway, is the obvious place.

The current bus detour on Scott and Albert streets is considered a big achievement at city hall, especially since it was heavily criticized in the planning phase.

Turns out, it hasn’t been terrible.

The city hopes to replicate the success at the western end of Scott Street in the Stage 2 LRT construction.

Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper said the city wants to run buses in dedicated lanes, one in each direction, along Scott Street between Tunney’s Pasture and the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway.

To make that happen, the city would need to extend Scott Street west, past Churchill Avenue and build a temporary bus bridge over the Transitway trench around Roosevelt Avenue. On the north side of the Transitway, the buses would make the short jog west near Workman Avenue and exit at the parkway.

There is a pedestrian and cycling bridge over the Transitway at Roosevelt that would be replaced with the bus bridge. Pedestrians and cyclists would need to cross the Transitway-turned-LRT trench at Churchill.

The city is already thinking about reducing the impact of buses rumbling past homes on Workman.

“It’s looking encouraging that the city will be able to build a full barrier,” Leiper said.

The city is also looking at ways to reduce the annoyances of construction at the Dominion LRT station near the parkway.

Leiper, LRT staff and community representatives have already been talking about the challenges.

There’s plenty of time to fine-tune the bus detour, which isn’t expected to begin until 2021. The western leg of the Stage 2 LRT extension is scheduled to open in 2023.

“This is the solution that has the least impact on residents in the neighbourhood,” Leiper said.

His “nightmare scenario” would have been using the northern part of Churchill Avenue to connect Scott Street with the parkway. That section of Churchill is a narrow residential street. 

The other option would run all the buses on the parkway, but Leiper said the road isn’t built to accommodate that much bus traffic and there would be significant congestion. The parkway will still be used for “deadhead” empty buses during the detour, he said.

There could be congestion on Scott Street, too, when OC Transpo diverts buses from the Transitway, but Leiper trusts the city’s traffic modelling.

His biggest concern is the intersection of Scott Street and Island Park Drive because of the number of pedestrians crossing there.

Back in the Westboro Beach community, Wellman said residents aren’t happy about losing their pedestrian bridge at Roosevelt Avenue, especially since children use it to go to school. They expect the pedestrian bridge to be rebuilt after the LRT line opens.

Wellman said the community will hold the city to its timelines for the bus detour.

“All we’re doing now is we’re going to watch them to keep their promise to make it as short of a time as possible,” Wellman said.

A public information session on the Stage 2 Scott Street bus detour will be held April 4 at Tom Brown Arena, starting at 6 p.m.

jwilling@postmedia.com

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