Ottawa to proceed with new LRT

Ottawa City Council has given the green light, and provincial and federal funding is in place, to proceed with a 12-kilometre light-rail transit project going east-west across the nation’s capital from Tunney’s Pasture to Blair Station. The route includes a 3-kilometre tunnel through the downtown and is estimated to cost $2.1 billion. Preliminary engineering on the design and construction is to be completed by 2012 and is being carried out by a joint venture known as Capital Transit Partners. The joint venture includes consulting engineering companies Morrison Hershfield, Jacobs Associates, STV Canada Consulting and URS Canada.
The LRT line is expected to cut the number of buses running along Rideau and Wellington streets near the Parliament precinct from 2,600 per day to 600 per day. The Ministry of Environment approved the project in August, just three months after the application was submitted in June.