‘It’s absolutely ridiculous’: Commuters frustrated with Highway 417 lane closures and traffic

Ottawa commuters say lane closures on Highway 417 are causing long delays. As CTV’s Kimberley Johnson reports, the city is looking to alleviate the congestion.

Frustration is building for commuters as lane closures on the Queensway continue to cause serious delays.

Now, the city says it’s launching measures to alleviate the congestion on Highway 417 between Woodroffe Avenue and Pinecrest Road during construction.

Even on the weekend, the highway heading westbound comes to a crawl, affecting commuters like Tobi Olowo.

“My Google Maps showed me red, so I knew I was expecting traffic,” he says when he saw his route coming from the east end to the west end. “So yeah, it’s not good.”

One lane of traffic has been closed on Highway 417 near Pinecrest Road since work began to install signage infrastructure for the LRT earlier this month, causing extra delays for drivers.

“Usually from the east end to the west end it would take me about 15 minutes, but it took me around 25 with traffic,” explains Owolo. “Hopefully it gets wrapped up soon.”

Moira Glover says she is grateful she managed to avoid the highway on Saturday, but says the slowdowns are constant throughout the week.

“It’s all the time, daily, no matter what time of day,” she explains. “You can think you’re timing it well, by avoiding rush hour, and come back home westbound, around 2:00, and it’s going to be stop-and-go and stop-and-go. It’s absolutely ridiculous.”

Councillor Laine Johnson says as of Saturday morning, a bus lane has opened up to drivers at the Woodroffe Avenue on-ramp to help the flow of traffic heading westbound on the highway.

“This has been sort of identified as a really pinchy point for drivers,” she explains. “So, by creating a three-lane instead of two-lane configuration, it’s anticipated that we’ll see relief on congestion pretty well right away.”

Johnson adds that she’s reviewing whether work can be sped up and finished before the July 28 completion date. Johnson also says there will be a review of how this happened.

The work being done is a city project.

• Lane closures, and accompanying traffic woes, on Hwy. 417 at Pinecrest due to LRT work: City

In a post to social media on Friday, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said he’s directed city staff to work with the Ministry of Transportation to accelerate the work being done and restore all lanes to traffic.

“The congestion on Highway 417 resulting from laneclosures in the west end is unacceptable and extremely disruptive to drivers and also to residents in neighbouring areas,” Sutcliffe wrote.

“I’ve directed city staff to work with the Ministry of Transportation to significantly accelerate the completion of the project and restore all lanes to traffic.”

Jack Lee has lived on Woodroffe Avenue for 30 years and says these days he sees bumper-to-bumper traffic leading onto the highway for the afternoon rush.

“All the way to Carling,” he explains.

Lee says so far, drivers allow him to get in and out of his driveway as needed but after 3 p.m. the area is busy. He says he’s waiting to see if the new measure will alleviate the congestion.

“We have to wait till Monday and see what is happening. Is that going to make a change or still the same way?”

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