Miller: Let’s get the trucks off Manotick’s main streets

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Beginning in the middle of the last decade, if not before, it was recognized by the City of Ottawa transportation planning officials, members of city council and certainly residents and business people as well as road users in Manotick, that there was a serious public safety issue relevant to the road system through the village. The continued use of Bridge Street and Main Street through the village as a designated City of Ottawa through-truck route joining the arterial roads approaching the village from east, west, north and south was problematic, in particular for pedestrian and bicycle users.

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Notwithstanding the safety concerns which arose due to the use of local roads through Manotick for cross-regional truck traffic, and despite the fact that city transportation and capital planning did take place to institute an alternative road network which would halt through trucks in Manotick, no actions of meaningful substance to have the designated truck route closed have been instituted.

There has been much attention paid to this issue by the local ward Coun. David Brown; Mayor Mark Sutcliffe visited one of the more dangerous locations on the route last summer; the Manotick Village Community Association (MVCA) has made the issue its highest priority infrastructure need; and, there have even been public demonstrations staged by senior citizens who live in two senior’s facilities adjacent to Bridge Street.

In the Fall of 2023, our group of concerned citizens decided to speak up publicly. While we want to work in coordination with MVCA to the same end to eliminate the truck route through the village, our group is independent from the community association. Our approach is about taking concrete action in the short term by developing an alternative route that is an obvious one, and to close the current route through the village. The people of our group are residents of the village with professional experience in government relations and road safety, and representatives of businesses, public institutions and multi-family residential facilities along the truck route. We call our group Manotick Concerned Citizens Against Truck Traffic — or MCCATT.

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The Vimy Bridge, connecting Earl Armstrong Road with Prince of Wales Drive and Strandherd Drive, was the intended new truck route across the Rideau River in South Ottawa when planned and constructed. The truck route crossing the Rideau River in Manotick was to be closed. However, this did not happen despite the fact that planning was done by the city to extend Earl Armstrong Road to create an efficient connection for trucks to the Vimy crossing. The six-lane Vimy Bridge on a typical weekday carries one-third of the volume of heavy commercial trucks compared to the two-lane bridges over the Rideau River and canal on Bridge Street in Manotick.

The plan to address this serious public safety issue is the city’s responsibility. It has been talked about enough. Development in Manotick is continuing unabated, while in fact the need to relocate the truck route should be a constraint on development. It is time to stop the talking and get on with taking action to solve the problem.

Our group is determined to work to mobilize the residents and businesses in our community to maintain the city’s attention on this matter, and ultimately to see that meaningful action is taken to get the through-truck traffic out of the village. Any resident or business owner who wants to be an active participant in our group or to offer feedback on the issue, can reach us at MCCATT@proton.me.

Bruce Miller, P.Eng., writes on behalf of Manotick Concerned Citizens Against Truck Traffic (MCCATT).

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