It’s taken nearly 75 years and five separate studies, but it finally appears that an inter-provincial bridge will be built across the Ottawa River, linking Aviation Parkway in Ottawa with Montée-Paiement on the Quebec side, crossing at Kettle Island.
Public Services and Procurement Canada and the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada made the announcement and released the initial project description earlier this month to the consternation of residents living along the Aviation Parkway corridor who will be directly impacted by not only the construction, but the increase in traffic the bridge will create.
The news the federal government is finally committed to building a bridge brings to a conclusion a process that began nearly over 75 years ago with the Greber Plan which proposed an east-end crossing near Kettle Island in 1950.
Subsequent studies in 1976, 1986 and 1999 also recommended a bridge be built at Kettle Island as did the most recent study conducted between 2009 and 2013 which looked at four possible locations in the east end including at Green’s Creek, on NCC land just west of Convent Glen North and at Petrie Island.
That study ultimately died before the ink had even dried when the Ontario Liberal government under Kathleen Wynne withdrew it’s support thanks in no small part to the lobbying efforts of former Ottawa-Vanier Liberal MPP Madeleine Meilleur.
It wasn’t until 2020 that the process to settle on a location once and for all was renewed by the NCC during which they re-evaluated the findings of the 2013 study and environmental assessment.
Those findings resulted in the recent decision by the NCC to build a bridge at Kettle Island after all. The project will also include modifications of existing roads and intersections along the Aviation Parkway and the Hwy 417-174 split.
The main argument to build for another interprovincial bridge is the need to decrease the amount of truck traffic currently using King Edward Avenue and the MacDonald-Cartier bridge.
Detractors of the bridge, at least on the Ontario side, argue that 90 per cent of the traffic that will be using the crossing will be coming to and from Gatineau and Quebec and past traffic studies have indicated their argument is well founded.
As for the cost to build an interprovincial bridge at Kettle Island, a 2019 report com-missioned by the NCC put the price tag at $1.81 billion. That price, however, would have to be revised due to inflation, likely putting it at over $2 billion.
Assuming the bridge is placed in the 2027 budget, construction potentially could start around 2029 and completed between 2032 to 2034..
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