Albion Road (Ottawa)

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Albion Road (Ottawa Road #25) is an important north-south road in the southern part of Ottawa, Canada. The street begins in the north as Albion Road North, at Walkley Road.

It runs only a short distance as a local road before being interrupted by the railway tracks and the Walkley O-Train garage. South of the rail lines Albion Road proper begins. At first a small street running through a residential area, it becomes briefly an arterial road at Hunt Club Road and Bank Street before passing through the Blossom Park Community.

South of Lester, it continues to run south, into the rural areas of Ottawa, as a minor arterial road, and it also forms the eastern boundary of Macdonald-Cartier International Airport. Albion Road continues through the rural part of Ottawa, ending at Mitch Owens Road, just northwest of Greely, Ontario.

[edit] Lester Road Detour Controversy

In December 2002, City Council voted in favour of prohibiting motorist going northbound or southbound on Albion to continue past the intersection of Lester Road ^[1] with the exception of emergency vehicules, bicycles and OC Transpo buses, although only a rush-hour route travels through that intersection. Residents of Blossom Park between Lester and Bank Street cited safety concerns as Albion was a residential artery and that speeding and heavy traffic became issues in the neighbourhood.

Motorists have been detoured to Bank Street to the east or the Airport Parkway to the west via Lester. Resident from the rural south later expressed concerned about the detour citing also safety reasons along Lester as many motorists were doing U-Turns to skip the detours. Motorists also cited the detour as an inconvenience to access other areas of the city such as the Bank Street area, the South Keys Shopping Centre and the Greenboro O-Train/Transit Station and Park and Ride. A bypass around the community at Albion Road has been proposed that would realign Albion from Lester to Hunt Club Road just west of the Airport Parkway but there were no immediate plans on that project nor was it planned in the City's Transportation Master Plan other than the widening of Albion south of Lester which itself was planned to be widen to the Airport Parkway which itself is proposed to be widen to Heron Road. ^[2]

Osgoode Ward Councillor Doug Thompson, who was a strong opponent of the closure, and whose ward includes many rural areas where residents are using Albion Road to travel to the city core, later re-lived the debate for the re-opening of the road in 2007. He previously made an attempt for the traffic measure lifting in 2004 but his motion was defeated 14-6. ^[3]In September of that year, a community meeting of proponents to the reopening of the intersection was held that led to more controversy as it was abruptly ended when Gloucester-Southgate Ward Councilor Diane Deans started her own debate within the meeting arguing for the closure of the road and had proposed several compromises including the extension of Earl Armstrong Road towards Bank Street as planned by the Transportation Master Plan. As the two sides confronted each other, police intervened and ended them meeting. In October 2007, the City's Transportation Committee had voted 5-3 against Thompson's motion but City Council reversed the decision 12-10 for a future re-opening of the road. However, a request by Councillor Deans to re-open the debate in early November was also approved as well as a new vote as Councillors Jan Harder and Christine Leadman were absent from the vote. However, on November 14, 2007, a bid to kept the intersection restrictions failed as Council kept the previous controversial decision and was officially re-opened on November 28, 2007. ^{[4] [5]}

According to A-Channel, Deans also criticized Baseline Ward Councillor Rick Chiarelli for changing his vote in favour of the re-opening due to pressures from Mayor Larry O'Brien's office citing possible impacts on a project in his ward, but Chiarelli replied that both sides were pressured for the vote. ^[6] Council had also approved some measures to slow down traffic in Blossom Park and to improve pedestrian crossing with the addition of three-way stops between Lester and Bank. ^[7]

[edit] References