Overpasses or underpasses are needed at five rail crossings in the Barrhaven area, a new city report says.
The grade separation crossings would cost an estimated $430 million combined, and the city would need help from Via Rail and other levels of government to help pay for them, the report says.
The report was commissioned by the city last year in response to the Sept. 2013 bus-train crash at the Transitway crossing that left six people dead. The Transportation Safety Board’s 2015 report into that crash recommended that the city examine grade separation crossings.
The report recommends an overpass at the Woodroffe and Transitway crossings near the Fallowfield Station, which are next to each other. It also recommends an overpass at the nearby Fallowfield crossing.
Underpasses are suggested for the Merivale Road and Jockvale Road crossings. But the report says the overpasses should be the top priority.
Via Rail paid for $100,000 of the $250,000 report, with the city covering the rest of the cost.
The report will be discussed at the city’s transportation committee on Wednesday, June 7. The next step would be environmental assessments, which the city says will be proposed as part of the 2018 draft budget.
City staff recommend that work would start on the grade-separations at Woodroffe, the Transitway and Fallowfield Road in 2018, to take advantage of promised infrastructure spending from the provincial and federal government.
