Ottawa’s construction season kicks off today. Here’s what you need to know about road projects this summer

The annual start of major roadwork kicked off Monday. As CTV’s Dave Charbonneau reports, drivers and businesses are bracing for delays.

Construction season officially kicks off in the City of Ottawa today, with several projects planned for the spring and summer to fix up roads and improve infrastructure.

Public Works and Infrastructure Committee Chair Tim Tierney was joined by councillors for an event Monday morning to launch the 2025 construction season on Bank Street and outline the city’s new construction safety campaign.

There are 700 active construction projects across the City of Ottawa, with $2.8 billion in spending on roads, bridges and infrastructure.

The Bank Street Renewal is one of several construction projects underway across Ottawa. The work on 2.8 kilometres of Bank Street, between Riverside Drive and Ledbury Avenue, includes the full reconstruction of the road and the sanitary sewer, storm water and watermains. There will also be new cycle tracks, the introduction of full height and mountable curb medians and new street scaping.

The work will see Heron Road close between Bank Street and Alta Vista Drive starting June 1, and the current Bank Street lane reductions between Riverside Drive and Collins Avenue continuing through the summer.

Alta Vista Coun. Marty Carr admits the Bank Street construction will be disruptive, but it will lead to more improvements in her neighbourhood.

“That is going to see the reconstruction of Bank Street into the multi-modal street. That project is the precursor to actually getting Alta Vista Drive done,” Carr told Newstalk 580 CFRA’s Ottawa at Work on Monday.

“The sewer trunk needs to be changed out at Bank Street and Alta Vista in order to proceed with Alta Vista Drive reconstruction, which is way overdue.”

Businesses admit the construction may slow down traffic, but it has to be done.

“Nobody is saying it doesn’t have to be done after 50 years,” Tasso Vasilas of Hometown Sports Grill said. “However, whether it’s better traffic flow or whether it’s, you know, officers at the intersections, moving the traffic. I know it all comes down to money, but something has to be done.”

Motorist Shannon Redburn admits it’s a “challenge to plan.”

“There’s a lot of good things that are happening at the same time, but at the end of the day, it is what it is.”

The 2025 City of Ottawa budget included millions of dollars for Ottawa’s transportation networks, including $184.6 million for road, water and sewer projects, $69.5 million for road resurfacing, $34.8 million for transportation bridges and structures and $14.2 million for sidewalks and pathways.

Other construction projects this summer include:

• Laurier Avenue between Bronson Avenue and Bay Street for resurfacing work
• Resurfacing Rothesay Drive, March Hurst Road, Thomas A. Doland Parkway and McElroy and Queensview drives
• Resurfacing work on Merivale Road, between Viewmount Drive and Meadowlands Drive
• Resurfacing Cedarview Road, from Fallowfield Road to Lytle Road
• Crews resurfacing Eagleson Road, from 250 metres south of Perth Street to Fallowfield Road
• Resurfacing work on Walkley Road between May and October
• New watermains, sewers and associated road rehabilitation on Greenfield Avenue and Main Street

Construction also continues this summer on the rehabilitation of the Mackenzie King Bridge, between Elgin Street and Nicholas Street.

In 2024, the City of Ottawa spent $600 million on bridge renewals, road rehabilitation, road resurfacing work, culvert renewals and replacements and traffic calming measures.

Highway construction

Motorists are also being warned of construction on Highway 417 through the spring and summer.

• Motorists warned to expect construction on Hwy. 417 through Ottawa this summer

The Highway 417 westbound on-ramp from southbound Pinecrest Road and the westbound off-ramp to Richmond Road are closed for Stage 2 LRT work. The ramps are scheduled to reopen in August.

Starting May 20, there will be lane closures and lane changes on Hwy. 417 between Island Park Drive and Kent Street for work on the median. The traffic changes include lanes shifted to the outside to allow for median construction, “periodic daytime (off-peak) and nighttime lane closures,” and the closure of the eastbound right lane at Kirkwood Avenue.

With files from CTV News Ottawa’s Dave Charbonneau