By Jordan Ferraro
Majestically straddling the Ottawa River, this 1901, steel-truss bridge began as a Canadian Pacific Interprovincial Rail crossing, serving as the mercantile and architectural gateway to and from the nation’s capital. The Royal Alexandra Interprovincial Bridge was outfitted with an energy-efficient electric trolley for passengers and was acclaimed for having Canada’s longest centre-span cantilever construction. That achievement received official historic designation by the Canadian Society of Civil Engineering in 1995.
In 2019, a federal budget provision was passed, based on data submitted by Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC), which provided the funding to decommission and deconstruct the Alexandra due to “unsustainable ongoing repair and maintenance costs”. A new bridge was to be rebuilt within a 10-year timeframe as a vehicular, pedestrian, and active-transportation entity in keeping with its purpose since the mid 1950s. The execution of the provision was passed to the National Capital Commission (NCC) with the aim of garnering public input to achieve a broad future vision to satisfy that aim.
At a well attended virtual meeting of the Lowertown Community Association in December, 2020, it was overwhelming decided that there was no adherence during the Phase 1 consultation process to retain the heritage component and that the repurposing of the bridge’s function contravened multigenerational, post-COVID realities of present-day society. The bridge presently serves 9% of vehicular traffic and has been seasonally closed with no apparent strain on the four remaining interprovincial bridges.
To date, there is no evidence that an Heritage Impact Assessment was performed and no firm timeline for deconstruction has been announced. Nor has there been a projected cost analysis done on deconstruction and rebuilding, including billing incurred by third-party contractors. The PSPC website is slated to go live with further information in the immediate future. More concrete NCC findings regarding a sixth bridge crossing study would further help define the outcome of the Alexandra.
A call to action by active-transportation lobbyists, environmental groups, civil engineers, historic preservationists, conservationist architects, former politicians, and the general population for further study of the plan has been gaining momentum. The focus is on the elimination of vehicular traffic and promotion of active transport, as well as re-instituting a tourism trolley which would connect museums, and let passengers enjoy scenic vistas, and drop them in the newly revitalized ByWard Market. Upon constructive re-examination, a winning post-COVID scenario seems to be within the tangible grasp of all concerned parties.
Jordan Ferraro is co-chair of the Transportation Committee of the Lowertown Community Association.