Weekly newsletter: March 5, 2024

Hi everyone!

At the time of writing (10:00 pm last night), the forecast for today is a high of 17°C and mostly sunny. I hope it materialises and you have a chance to enjoy it!

Woodroffe Avenue lane reductions

Off-peak lane reductions began yesterday on southbound Woodroffe Avenue (towards Barrhaven) from just north of David Drive to just south of Norice Street in College Ward. The reductions will happen outside of 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm until Thursday.

Crews will be using that time to access valves to shut off the water main in the area in preparation for repair works to begin on Friday. The substantive repair works will result in traffic disruptions at all times of day starting Friday, March 8.

Repair works will happen seven days a week, with an anticipated completion of Sunday, March 17. The main work area is in the southbound cycling lane, bus lane, and right-hand travel lane just north of Norice.

Starting at Tallwood, the lanes will progressively squeeze into the left lane by midway to Norice. The remaining lane will shift into the left turn lane through the Woodroffe/Norice intersection, before all southbound lanes become available again south of the intersection. No left turns to Norice will be permitted during the closure to maintain traffic flow.

Following that, off-peak southbound lane reductions will continue until approximately Friday, March 29 while crews access the valves again to the water main. This date is tentative for now.

Detour signage suggesting southbound motorists use Baseline, Greenbank, and West Hunt Club to avoid the work area will be installed on Woodroffe. However, a minimum of one traffic lane will be maintained at all times.

The repair at Norice Street is part of a larger package of water main repairs which included works done at Slack Road earlier in the winter.

Solid Waste Master Plan

The Solid Waste Master Plan (SWMP) is nearing its final stages of development!

The SWMP is Ottawa’s strategy for managing garbage over the next 30 years. While the most consequential item within the plan is the end-of-life plan for the Trail Road Landfill, it includes strategies and technologies we could use to improve waste diversion rates.

The Trail Road Landfill will reach capacity in the mid-2030s. Even if residents drastically altered their disposal habits to give the landfill a few extra years, the reality something new will be needed. Considering it takes an average of 10 years from approval to it being operational, we need to decide on our next waste processing facility now.

The two technologies I’m favouring are mixed waste processing and waste-to-energy incineration. The former helps with diversion, while the latter is how the remaining material will be processed.

Mixed waste processing… processes materials and separates recyclables from the waste stream upon arrival at a facility.

Historically, mixed waste processing was used mostly as a means of capturing waste for energy production, but it is becoming an increasingly popular method of improving waste diversion rates, especially as technologies like optical sensors continue to evolve and improve.

The technology provides a balance between asking residents to adjust their disposal habits and overburdening residents with all sorts of rules and restrictions. Doing too little and too much may compromise waste diversion objectives, so striking that balance is important and necessary.

After the processing, residual materials can then pass on to an incinerator, where the material is…incinerated (the verbs in the names are making describing them really easy).

Incineration gives our residual garbage extra lives as a fuel, electricity, and even secondary aggregate for construction.

To be fair, early incinerators were dirty, polluting, and harmful factories. As technology and environmental care improved, they have given way to modern incinerators, which adhere to much stricter environmental standards of our time.

Waste-to-energy has been used in several European countries (since some people seem to love using Europe as a baseline) since untreated wastes were banned from landfills around the new millennium.

Whether it’s mixed waste processing, waste-to-energy incineration, or both, it’s undeniable these facilities will require a lot of capital to build and a lot of money to operate.

Thankfully, both facilities present major revenue opportunities to help offset those costs, mostly through accepting garbage from other sources, but also through the sale of any fuel, electricity, and secondary aggregate that may be generated.

Using those technologies is not the lazy way out, though. It does not mean an end to sorting out recyclables and organics from garbage, nor does it mean we should become a more wasteful society. The good habits most people have developed need to be maintained to reduce the amount of new material entering the production cycle.

I believe these exciting opportunities are our future, but we will need to be careful about where the facilities are sited, as our neighbours in Half Moon Bay and Quinn’s Pointe will attest.

Given the financial, environmental, and habitual implications of the SWMP, plus the opportunity of a generation to make a major change, it’s important the right choice is made for the future of waste disposal.

City staff are wrapping up the last series of public engagements on the Solid Waste Master Plan. The last public virtual engagement session will be held via Zoom on Wednesday, March 6 at 6:30 pm, while a public survey will be online until Thursday, March 7.

The survey, Zoom link, and more information about the process can be found on the EngageOttawa webpage

Staff are currently on track to completing the SWMP in time for presentation and vote by Council in June.

Annual pool maintenance – Minto Recreation Complex

Please note the swimming pool at the Minto Recreation Complex will be closed from Monday, March 18 to Monday, April 8 (inclusive) for annual maintenance. Pools at Walter Baker and Nepean Sportsplex remain open, but may be busier during that time.

We’ll be skipping next week’s newsletter. Wishing residents across the community an enjoyable March Break week, and hope some of you can get away to somewhere nice!

Take care,
-Wilson