Five-kilometre section of Queensway reopens for Monday morning commute
Traffic is moving through a five-kilometre section of the Queensway in Ottawa's west end this morning, after construction crews replaced the aging Booth Street Bridge.
Highway 417 reopened to traffic between Metcalfe and Carling/Kirkwood Avenues at approximately 12 a.m. Monday, six hours ahead of schedule after crews worked through the weekend to replace the bridge in Ottawa's west end.
"Good News! 417 now fully open between Carling/Kirkwood and Metcalfe," Twitter account Ottawa_Traffic declared at 12:15 a.m.
The weekend closure forced thousands of vehicles off the highway onto city streets, causing traffic delays on Carling Avenue, Catherine Street, Bronson Avenue and other roads through Centretown, Little Italy and Westboro.
The highway was initially scheduled to be closed for 82 hours between 8 p.m. Thursday and 6 a.m. Monday, but the road closures and detours were lifted six hours early. On Sunday evening, construction crews were finishing the paving of the new stretch of highway, painting the traffic lines and installing the barriers before it reopened.
Using "rapid-bridge replacement" technology, construction crews are replacing the existing Booth Street Bridge. On Thursday night and Friday, crews demolished the original bridge, and then moved the new bridges into place.
"The conventional approach would take about two construction seasons and it would mean closing a lane at a time, obviously having a huge impact on traffic," Frank Vanderlaan, Ministry of Transportation, Highway Engineering Planning and Design, said on Thursday.
"Being able to do it over an 82-hour period has a huge benefit."
The Booth Street Bridge replacement is the first of five bridge replacements scheduled in Ottawa over the next three years.
The Rochester Street Bridge replacement is scheduled for the fall, with the Bronson Avenue and Percy Street overpass structures being replaced next summer. The Preston Street Overpass is scheduled to be replaced in 2024.
A live stream of the bridge replacement work along the Queensway is available on YouTube.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Amid concerns over 'collateral damage' Trudeau, Freeland defend capital gains tax change
Facing pushback from physicians and businesspeople over the coming increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland are standing by their plan to target Canada's highest earners.
Bodies found by U.S. authorities searching for missing B.C. kayakers
United States authorities who have been searching for a pair of missing kayakers from British Columbia since the weekend have recovered two bodies in the nearby San Juan Islands of Washington state.
Tom Mulcair: Park littered with trash after 'pilot project' is perfect symbol of Trudeau governance
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
'It's discriminatory': Individuals refused entry to Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
Individuals being barred from entering Ontario’s legislature while wearing a keffiyeh say the garment is part of their cultural identity— and the only ones making it political are the politicians banning it.
Competition bureau finds 'substantial' anti-competitive effects with proposed Bunge-Viterra merger
The proposed merger of agricultural giants Viterra and Bunge is raising competition concerns from the federal government.
Douglas DC-4 plane with 2 people on board crashes into river outside Fairbanks, Alaska
A Douglas C-54 Skymaster airplane crashed into the Tanana River near Fairbanks on Tuesday, Alaska State Troopers said.
BREAKING Mounties will not be charged in shooting death of B.C. Indigenous man
Three Mounties in British Columbia will not face charges in the killing of a 38-year-old Indigenous man on Vancouver Island in 2021.
Canada's favourite sport to watch is hockey, survey shows
The 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs have already delivered a fever level of fan excitement in Canada.
'It's just so hard to let it go': Umar Zameer still haunted by death of Toronto police officer
“It's just so hard to let it go. I mean, everyone is telling me, ‘you have to move on,’ but I know someone is not here [anymore]. So I don't know how I will move on." That’s what Umar Zameer, the man recently acquitted in the death of a Toronto police officer, told CTV News Toronto in a sit-down interview on Tuesday.