It’s that time of year again: Ottawa residents can cast their votes for the city’s worst road.
CAA’s annual Worst Roads campaign focuses on roads throughout the province. Residents can nominate and vote based on factors including congestion, gaps and poor signage.
Last year, three Ottawa roads beat the 10 worst in Ontario. Carling Avenue was number two, Hunt Club Road was sixth and Innes Road was number eight.
Voting this year is open until April 19.
The CAA put the campaign on hiatus in 2020 due to the pandemic, and no Ottawa roads were in the top 10 in either 2019 or 2018.
The Worst Roads campaign has impacted change since it launched in 2003, the CAA says. Repair and repair work has been carried out on many of the roads on the list.
“Every spring we launch the campaign for the worst roads, and it’s a survey across the province looking for the worst roads – the ones that have the biggest holes that will swallow a minivan, the ones where the sidewalk crumbles, there are crocodiles all over the sidewalk, ”said CAA North and Eastern Ontario Communications Director Julie Beun. must focus. “
Beun says a multi-year opportunity already gets many votes.
“I looked at the numbers this morning, and already now Carling Avenue is getting the big raspberries from Ottawa again,” Beun said. “Bronson Avenue has made a surprising appearance on the list, Hunt Club, again, another bad one. We’re also looking at Baseline and Richmond Road.”
Carling Avenue, looking toward Bronson Avenue. (Peter Szperling / CTV News Ottawa)
Carling Avenue often appears on lists of the worst roads. The city of Ottawa says it is a long street with a long history.
“Carling Avenue is a 19-kilometer-long roadway that accommodates a very large number of daily users. Not all of Carling Avenue was built the same way. The road varies in width from a two-lane rural cross-section with ditches to a six-lane thoroughfare with dedicated transit lanes. There are some city sections built with a concrete base that are nearing the end of their life cycle, ”said Ottawa’s asset management manager Gen Nielsen in a statement.
“Although some parts of Carling are in poor occupancy, the city has consistently rehabilitated the worst parts since 2006.”
Nielsen said parts of Carling Avenue will undergo reconstruction work in 2022 and that there are more rehabilitation plans in 2023.
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City staff say they have already worked on filling in gaps throughout the city. Director of Roads and Parking Services Quentin Levesque said from Monday that city staff had filled 42,398 holes by 2022.
He says spring is often the worst time of year for road conditions.
“As potholes are difficult to repair in the cold winter months, this time of year is typically the worst for road conditions for a few reasons: the amount of frost and thaw cycles increases, winter weather events (snow, frost and rain) continue to occur, and crews receive an influx of service requests from different areas of the city. “
The city has about 6,000 km of roads within its boundaries.
These were the five worst roads in Ottawa in 2021:
- Carling Avenue
- Hunt Club Road
- Innes Vej
- Montreal Road
- Merivale road