[All] Ion: River Road Extension

[water.lulu at yahoo.ca]

Quick comments I left on the city's website for ION.
I will be providing more in depth analysis in the near future as well. 
Lulu :0)
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What challenges do you see with the Preliminary Preferred Route?

This plan does not reflect the Ion Schematic Map that the public was previously shown which I still have.  The map I have shows the ION route running  parallel to Fairway Rd. connecting to an area east of Highway 8. To divert the ION route the proposed River Road Extension is in my view, ridiculous. This corridor has been referred to in many previous planning studies going back to the 1981 River Road Extension and Feasibility Study, the 1989 Wabanaki Drive Extension, the 2000 King Street East Improvements and the 2001 Block Line Environmental Study Review. They designed this road extension to provide relief from capacity constrained intersections in the area and alleviate growing traffic congestion on Fairway Road. The study area encompasses the ESPA 27  and an identified Provincially Significant Wetland (PSW). The project began in 1981 and I've been participating with this public process now for over 10 years and have observed the price of this proposed road extension rise from 21 million in 2007 to 72 million in 2013. It's not getting cheaper.  To suggest that we can simply reduce the River Road overpass from 4 lanes to two, in order to accommodate ION, negates the intended function of the bridge. If two lanes were sufficient by design, what public benefit was there for Regional staff to promote a plan for over 20 years that basically doubled capacity and added millions to the baseline costs?  

What new issues or information do we need to consider about the Preliminary Preferred Route?
Currently the Region of Waterloo is anticipating future growth with a vision of a water pipeline to Lake Erie to support water demands but these schemes will no longer be a viable because the Trump administration is cutting the Environmental Protection Agency's budget for Great Lakes protection from $300 million to just $10 million dollars. We will loose Lake Erie as a potential water supply as a result. The River Road Extension plan is a very bad idea because our Region is the largest region in Canada dependent on groundwater. The River Road Extension is a direct threat to known primary recharge areas and home to a high number of federally protected endangered species. The need is there to assess how much water we risk to loose not only in terms of both lost water volumes but in lost water quality. I've already secured concessions with the MOE Minister, by way of a Part II order,  to further studies on road salt impacts associate with the River Road extension but now with the additional bottle neck traffic that a two lane road scenario could introduce, the need is there to also consider the particulate risks of the additional smog generated by idling traffic making the transition from 4 lane highways to a two lane over pass. With continued budget cuts and weakening of policy at the US level we must also prepare for increased acid rain and smog blowing in from the US as a threat to our localized air and water quality. 

Do we even have the water to provide for our current growth rates or the money to support the costs for such infrastructure projects? 


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