Ottawa LRT west extension could be ready for passengers by 2027, city says

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Ottawa’s LRT west extension line could be ready for passengers by 2027, City of Ottawa officials say.

Media were taken on a tour of what will eventually be a significant expansion to the Confederation Line, adding 11 stations and 15 km of rail, including a concrete tunnel running underneath the Kichi Zībī Mīkan Parkway, on Friday.

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Jacelyn Daigle, the city’s construction manager for Stage 2 of the LRT system, said the Parkway Tunnel was 85 per cent complete and construction was expected to be finished by summer. Then work will begin to install tracks and the overhead electric catenary system. That’s expected to take until early 2026, when test trains could start running.

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The western extension could see its first passengers by 2027, Daigle said, but she cautioned that date could still be a moving target for the “large, complex project” to extend the current LRT system past Tunney’s Pasture to Moodie Drive, with a “spur line” running south to Algonquin College.

The Parkway Tunnel is one of three underground elements of the expanding LRT line and will eventually be three kilometres long, travelling under Kichi Zībī Mīkan Parkway and Richmond Road up to 10 metres below ground level.

The tunnel is “on the critical path, helping determine when we finish this section of the project,” Daigle said.

The east and west extensions to the Confederation Line have a combined price tag of $2.57 billion.

READ MORE: East and west rail extensions behind schedule, light rail subcommittee hears

The east rail extension to Trim Road was initially scheduled for completion by late 2024, but is now expected to start operations in 2025.

Meanwhile, the west rail extension was initially scheduled to be done by 2025, but the city’s light rail sub-committee was told last summer that it was 17 months behind, with delays on the cut-and-cover tunnel along the Kichi Zībī Mīkan and Byron Linear Park pushing the overall project completion date to late 2026.

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Now that date has been pushed back again.

Cut-and-cover is a tunnelling method that involves excavating a trench, building a tunnel and then adding the roof, or cover, as opposed to “bored tunnels” that are constructed using tunnel-boring machines. Construction crews began working on the Parkway Tunnel in 2019 by relocating sewers, water mains and other utilities and realigning the Kichi Zībī Mīkan parkway and pathways.

Daigle said the delays could partially be chalked up to worker shortages related to the COVID-19 pandemic, among other reasons.

“As with any construction project, there are unknowns,” she said. “The main items we had to navigate with constructors is site conditions, rock quality, soil conditions. It’s been a challenging few years, with COVID and other factors. We’re very proud of the work we have behind us, the quality we have behind us, and we’re confident it will be both safe and reliable when it’s ready.”

After the tunnel is complete, the next phase of testing will bring its own set of unknowns that could “refine further” the opening date for the public, she said.

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Water leaks and falling concrete along existing O-Train tunnels have been valuable lessons for Stage 2, Daigle said, resulting in an emphasis on waterproofing the underground structures.

READ MORE: LRT tunnel expected to shut down in June to repair water leaks

Notably, this project has a dedicated construction management team, which was not the case for the initial Confederation Line.

“We have our own dedicated field coordinators in the field, having a look, making sure no quality corners are being cut,” Daigle said. “They’re getting ahead of issues, co-ordinating any permits needed, anything the city can do to progress this project forward.”

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