How the NCC and Carleton University are looking to extend the Rideau Canal Skateway season

Carleton University Engineering Professor Shawn Kenny shows us the technology that speeds up the process of measuring the ice thickness on the Rideau Canal.

It has been a busy start to the skating season on the Rideau Canal Skateway, with thousands of visitors a day enjoying a skate on the world’s largest skating rink.

The National Capital Commission (NCC) opened the skateway on Jan. 11, and all 7.8 kilometres of the skateway are open for skating between Rideau Street and Dow’s Lake.

In the first 10 days of the season, there were 269,700 visits to the Rideau Canal Skateway, according to the NCC. The busiest day was Sunday, Jan. 12, when 46,400 people visited the skateway. There were 42,200 visits on the opening day on Jan. 11.

This winter is the first time since 2022 that the full 7.8 km of the Rideau Canal Skateway has opened for skating.

NCC CEO Tobi Nussbaum told the NCC’s Board of Directors NCC crews gained “important insights” through the last two years of challenges on the skateway, which included no skating during the 2022-23 winter.

“With the help of our ongoing partnership with Carleton University, which is helping us to identify innovative strategies such as using lighter equipment on the ice and advanced technologies to create ice earlier in the season,” Nussbaum said. “So, it has been a very useful partnership.”

Nussbaum said cold temperatures at the end of December and in January helped the NCC open the skateway.

The four-year collaboration between the NCC and Carleton University is looking at the impacts of climate change on the Rideau Canal Skateway, and exploring technological ways to keep the famous attraction open longer, including a “slush cannon,” a robot to clear the snow from the skateway and technology to measure ice thickness.

“The partnership is to look at how we can help improve the resilience of the Rideau Canal Skateway in the face of climate change,” Shawn Kenny, civil and environmental professor at Carleton University, told CTV Morning Live. “We’re on a four-year project to gather data, develop engineering models to try to predict future events and also look at adaptation strategies.”

On Thursday morning, the ice was 38 cm thick on the Rideau Canal Skateway near the National Arts Centre.

“Along the length of the canal, the ice will change its thickness because it’s influenced by the environment; the physical environment, the buildings, the bridges, the water depth,” Kenny said.

The NCC and Carleton University have put sensors under the ice to monitor water and ice temperatures. To monitor the thickness of the ice, researchers are using a ground-penetrating radar system, which is carried on a sled along the ice.

“These two pieces here of equipment are radar antenna and they’re sending out a signal into the ice,” Kenney told CTV Morning Live’s Melissa Lamb.

“It will go through the snow cover, the ice cover into the water and the reflections will come back. Those reflections will come back as we measure it … we can then measure the ice thickness.”

Students at Carleton University are assisting with the research on extending the season on the Rideau Canal Skateway.

“Some were working on the Snobot and getting that ready, as a semi-autonomous system to actually look at snow clearing mechanisms,” Kenny said. “Others were working on engineering models to try and predict how will future climate change affect growth of ice in the future.”

The SnoBot is a lightweight robot that could be used to remove blankets of snow early in the winter, allowing the ice to freeze. The SnoBot weighs 50 kilograms and is made of 3D material.

“The first snow bot prototype looks like a cross between a remote-controlled toy truck with caterpillar treads and a child-sized snowplow,” Carleton University says.

As part of the partnership, NCC and Carleton University also turned to a new secret weapon to combat milder temperatures: the slush cannon. It shoots freezing cold slush onto the surface of the canal, helping to build up a thicker layer of ice.

This winter is the first time since 2022 that the full 7.8 km section has opened for skating.

The Rideau Canal Skateway opened for 10 days during the 2023-24 season, but the full 7.8 km section did not open due to poor ice conditions. The skateway did not open for skating during the 2022-23 season because of mild temperatures.