It’s a living nightmare for many commuters in Ottawa’s east end, who have been frustrated from road closures and disruptions for the last three years. Construction on the LRT’s eastern extension has gridlocked Beacon-Hill Cyrville Coun. Tim Tierney’s community, who says lane reductions, ramp closures and detours have been put in place without warning or purpose. “We’ve been living this nightmare for three years, and there’s a tipping point,” Tierney told CTV News Ottawa on Saturday. “The tipping point is when they just decided not to inform the public.” A memo provided by Tierney from the city says there were 1,192 full or partial closures in 2023 and 2024 due to the east end LRT construction. In 2023, there were 488 closures. In 2024, there were 704 closures. Tierney says he expects that number to continue climbing in 2025 and will be requesting more data from the city. Along Montreal Road, commuters say closures happen sporadically and are often unable to access Highway 174. “It’s random opens, random closures and the information is usually too late,” said driver Melissa Linkletter. “It makes people’s lives really, really uncomfortable. I’ve been almost late for work. You sit in traffic and the other thing that happens is that people get road rage because they can only sit for so long.” OC Transpo says between July 4 and 6, electronic signage was not put in place by the contractor, Kiewit Eurovia-Vinci (KEV), for ramp closures at Montreal Road and Highway 174. In a statement, the transit service wrote, “We are reviewing our processes and will be increasing oversight to ensure compliance with traffic control plans in the future.” Tierney says he isn’t impressed with how KEV has been managing the closures. “The constructor unfortunately, they’re treating this like the Wild West,” said Tierney. “Frankly, they’ve just been running this city, and that’s not how it is. We’re the clients. They’re the ones building it for us and they have to learn to bundle things and make it less of an impact on the community.” Tierney says KEV has put closures in place at its convenience, neglecting the impact it would have on the community. “They’ve closed roadways willy-nilly because they don’t want to go out and do the required steps through the MTO (Ministry of Transportation) and the province to get paid duty police officers, to restrict traffic, to just simply close the lane.” Tierney says without proper notification, the city cannot update online GPS services such as Google Maps or Waze, which requires at least 24 hours for changes to be seen by drivers. Standing on the shoulder of Montreal Road at the 174 Saturday morning, Tierney pointed to a full lane closed off by traffic cones, as well as an on-ramp to the highway. “This ramp is listed as open today,” he said referring to Google Maps. “But clearly, this ramp is closed.” “No construction has happened the entire week. So why are we blocking lanes unnecessarily and creating more havoc and chaos?” In a nearby strip mall, a new Greek restaurant says they opened about a month ago, but regret doing so because of the construction. “If I had known it is like that, to be honest with you, I wouldn’t open a place in this area,” said Rahim Mohsemi, manager at Royal Greek and Shawarma. “We are not making that much money.” As for when commuters can expect the road work to clear up, Tierney says that may come as a surprise too one day. “This train that they keep saying will be ready in September, it won’t be. It just won’t,” he said. “We need to be able to have some peace and enjoyment of our community, especially over the summer. At least be informed, tell us when things are going to be closed.”
