The LRT opened to the public on Sept. 14, and the Rideau Transit Group didn’t hesitate to jump onto the next stage of the project: the construction of Stage 2.
Not even three weeks after the debut of Stage 1, the City of Ottawa and RTG dove into this project by clear cutting multiple forests, which includes 40-year-old trees, in order to make room for these new stations.
Stage 2 will run east from Blair to Trim and west from Tunney’s Pasture heading towards Moodie.
Some trains will turn left after passing Lincoln Fields and head south passing Iris station and ending at Baseline station.
The south line will also be extending to the Ottawa International Airport and Bowesville.
Algonquin Times has focused on capturing the demolition of the forests surrounding Iris Station for the past 10 weeks.
SEPTEMBER
At the end of September/beginning of October, work crews started to slowly cut down 40-year-old, maple, oak, black walnut and rare butternut trees and put them into chipping piles.
OCTOBER
The south side of Iris Station at the beginning of October.
The north side of Iris at the end of October.
NOVEMBER
The north side of Iris has been cleared so that pedestrians are able to see the buildings on Constellation Drive.
Just looking at the Stage 2 west end expansion, it will remove 800 buses, add 15 kilometres of new rail, and 11 new stations.
The Ottawa Citizen reported that “the city is promising to plant two trees for every tree it removes as part of its re-greening project.”
Stage 2 is scheduled to open for service in 2025.