Uncertainty for future Airport Parkway expansions

If you’re a driver in Ottawa, chances are you’ve used the Airport Parkway. Its popularity as a connection route has grown in recent years, along with calls for an expansion. 

In 2008, plans were proposed which would see the Parkway expanded from two lanes to four from Brookfield Road to Hunt Club Road. Also part of the project is a new southbound off-ramp at Walkley Road, a roundabout intersection, and a multi-use pathway (MUP) on the west side. Sawmill Creek Pathway is already located to the east near South Keys.

Construction on the entire road development was supposed to start in spring 2026 and end four years later. But its future is now uncertain due to changing timelines and a broken up approach.  

Here's what happened

In 2023, council approved a plan to decouple the $89-million project and delay the Parkway widening until a new Transportation Master Plan (TMP) was tabled and they had two years of data on the LRT Trillium line which runs parallel to the transportation network . The off-ramp was fast-tracked and approved, however, and final design work is taking place this year. Its expected funding will be included in the 2026 and 2027 municipal budgets.  

City staff have begun doing design work on the future multi-use pathway and Parkway expansion. If the path was to be built now, city staff have said it would be damaged during future widening work. New design information revealed that constructing the MUP on the west side of the Airport Parkway — without concurrently constructing the roadway widening — would involve substantial throwaway costs of about $870,000. 

River Ward Coun. Riley Brockington, whose community would benefit from the active transportation network, said he agreed to delay the project on that basis, but wants more information on future timelines. The Airport Parkway is listed as a priority project in the TMP, but staff have concerns it will not be built in the one to three-year timeline currently proposed. 

Brockington supported a motion at Wednesday's council meeting to defer the multi-use pathway for a few months until the updated TMP is released this summer. By that point, he said council would have a better idea whether or not it was wise to move ahead with the active transportation crossing now — or wait for the projects to be done together. 

Neighbouring colleague and Gloucester-Southgate Coun. Jessica Bradley said she supported a deferral and questioned city staff's comments on the crossing being damaged. She also said the finances could be looked at from various angles. 

“In terms of throwaway costs, we were only considering the damaged path, not the fact that if we don't widen it for 10 years, the cost to actually construct that pathway is going to go up quite a bit when we consider inflation and construction costs,” Bradley told the Lookout. 

Bradley, who already has a multi-use pathway on her ward’s side of the Parkway, also said the money is currently secured to build the pathway and fears it could be lost in the future. She also noted reluctance in trusting the TMP master plan because the Airport Parkway expansion was also listed as a priority in 2025 but never went anywhere. And since then, more projects have been added to the growing list.

Over half of council did not agree. A motion to defer was defeated Wednesday, 13-11. 

Beacon Hill-Cyrville Coun. Tim Tierney said he was “perplexed” as to why the city “wants to waste money.” Kanata North Coun. Cathy Curry worried the motion would delay “what is a critical project to widen that road to the airport.” Both voted against. 

Brockington disagreed. In closing statements, he said the motion does not decide when the Parkway would be widened, whether or not to decouple the project, or if to accept the throwaway costs. He said it was simply to get more information. 

So should the Airport Parkway expansion move ahead? 

Most councillors say yes. Brockington noted not all of his constituents are on board, but there is certainly a compelling case to be made. 

“We don't have a lot of north-south rapid routes in the city. If you think about it, how do people south of Hunt Club get to the Queensway or downtown? They've got at least a one -lane airport parkway, Prince of Wales is one lane, two lanes in some areas, but mostly one lane. To the west you've got streets like Merivale and Woodroffe, Cedarview further west you get,” Brockington told the Lookout. 

“In just my time in office, the explosion of communities south of Hunt Club like Findlay Creek, Riverside South, Barrhaven; lots of people take the Hunt Club bridge to get on Prince of Wales to get down to Barrhaven,” the River Ward councillor added. “The Airport Parkway winding is supposed to serve communities like that to get to the canal, downtown or to get onto the Queensway further north.”

Bradley on the other hand isn’t as convinced. She said the TMP was delayed because of changing traffic patterns due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And while back to normal levels, the arrival of the Trillium Line could also change things. 

“The Airport Parkway functions well probably 98 per cent of the time and has some pinch points around peak morning and peak pm traffic. There is a period of the day where it gets a little bit stop-and-go,” said Bradley. “I don't want to minimize people's experiences. I know that people's time is of value and they want to get home to their families after work or they need to get to their jobs. But when we pit it against all of our other priorities in the city and the cost and whether that's actually going to provide real congestion relief.”

Riverside South-Findlay Creek Coun. Steve Desroches said he disagreed with council's decision to decouple the Parkway project a few years ago and thinks it’s a waste of time to wait for LRT statistics. 

“To claim that Line 2 would meet all of the needs of our transportation clients is out of touch with reality. No other sort of city has this policy where we’d delay infrastructure because of the launch of our LRT system,” he told council. “In fact the east-west lines run parallel to the 416. It’s clear to me that the Parkway upgrades are needed. The taxi industry relies on this key corridor. And the new e-commerce we are seeing around this will not rely on transit.”  

What happens next is somewhat unclear. A better idea on the future of the Airport Parkway expansion plans will be known after the TMP is released, but even then no final decisions are immediately made.