City considering widening Carling underpass to connect new Civic Campus to transit

Dow's Lake Station on O-Train Line 2 is pictured on April 16, 2026. (Tyler Fleming/CTV News Ottawa)

City councillors on Ottawa’s public works and infrastructure committee will be debating an $80-million project to widen the Carling Avenue Bridge in order to better connect Dow’s Lake Station to the future Civic Campus of the Ottawa Hospital.

A report prepared for the April 23 meeting says staff looked at ways to provide better access to the future hospital from the Line 2 light rail station on the north side of Carling Avenue.

An environmental assessment looked at two options, building a bridge over Carling Avenue or a tunnel under it. While the bridge option was found to be less expensive, public feedback favoured the tunnel, which was described as more direct, seamless, and intuitive. The tunnel, however, was not initially preferred by city staff due to construction complexity and the risks associated with underground infrastructure.

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“In response, the Ottawa Hospital initiated discussions with the City to explore the feasibility of an alternate crossing option using the Carling Avenue underpass,” the report says.

While initially deemed infeasible due to the underpass being too narrow, staff explored another recommendation that involved replacing the aging Carling Avenue Bridge with a wider underpass.

“Constructed in 1965, the bridge has an estimated remaining service life of 15 to 20 years, presenting an opportunity to coordinate its replacement with construction of a new pedestrian crossing. This coordinated approach would allow the underpass to be appropriately sized to accommodate anticipated pedestrian activity while adhering to current safety and design standards adjacent to an active rail corridor,” staff said.

The design involves extending the Dow’s Lake Station platform south under Carling Avenue. The wider bridge would also accommodate future plans to install a second track on Line 2 in the area and a second platform. The design would eliminate the need for a headhouse on the north side of Carling Avenue, which was a concern raised by developers in the area.

“Compared to the bridge and tunnel, this solution provides a more direct, intuitive connection to the Ottawa Hospital for those accessing the site by transit, with direct line-of-sight connectivity across Carling Avenue from the O-Train platform,” staff said.

Kitchissippi ward Coun. Jeff Leiper says residents in the area have concerns about the increased volume of traffic once the hospital opens.

“There is a very legitimate concern when the hospital opens, there is the potential for a lot of traffic congestion, a lot of parking pressure, a lot of unsafe driver behaviors. The best way we can mitigate that is to try to get people on transit,” said Leiper. “In order for transit to work, we have to have a safe, comfortable connection, whether protected directly to the hospital.”

Leiper said the bridge proposal would have required too many elevators and likely wouldn’t see use, so an underground connection was the best way to mitigate concerns.

The Civic Hospital Neighbourhood Association says a properly working and barrier-free transit solution must be in place when the hospital opens or residents won’t make use of it, likely choosing to drive instead.

“If a well-designed connection is not present on opening day, users will become entrenched in their behaviour and not readily open to changing their transit practice when the connection has been completed,” the association said in a statement to CTV News Ottawa.

Shuttle buses in the interim

Staff say the project would require significant funding, coming in at an estimated price tag of $80 million.

Should funding not be available, other options are being considered in the interim to better connect transit users with the hospital campus.

Leiper says this proposal should be seen as an investment in the future of the neighbourhood.

“There are going to be research building towers along here, commercial towers, residential. This is about more than just getting people into the hospital; this is a long-term way to make sure that transit is the preferred way to get to and from this entire hospital campus to the rest of the city,” he said.

One suggestion is a minibus shuttle between Dow’s Lake Station and the hospital. Staff say the shuttle would provide a fast, barrier-free, and weather-protected connection between the transit network and the hospital site and would be at no cost to riders. It would require approximately $1.5 million in funding to buy the necessary minibuses, plus operating costs. The shuttle service would be discontinued once the underpass is completed.

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Other options include weather protection at the Carling Avenue crossing from Dow’s Lake Station, at a cost of $1 million.

The report also includes a $2.6 million plan to widen the multi-use pathway over the O-Train tracks on the south side of Carling Avenue by installing a six-metre-wide active transportation bridge. This bridge would only be constructed if the Carling Avenue bridge replacement and underpass is implemented in the longer term, staff say.

For comparison, the initial bridge proposal came in at an estimated cost of $54 million, while the tunnel would be $82 million, but these prices do not include the additional cost of eventually replacing the Carling Avenue Bridge.

There was no projected timeline for the project in the committee report. The new Civic Campus of the Ottawa Hospital is projected to open in 2028.

The committee meets on April 23. Staff are recommending councillors approve the underpass and interim options.

With files from CTV News Ottawa’s Tyler Fleming