The Queensway was one of Canada's most ambitious urban highway projects. Conceived in the 1940s as a beaux-arts boulevard, it ended up in the 1960s as a crosstown expressway sandwiched in a narrow corridor between established neighourhoods - a planning mistake repeated in most mid-sized North American cities.
A copy of this photograph used to hang outside the reception area of the former Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton's Transportation Department. It disappeared around the time of the City of Ottawa amalgamation. The plume of black smoke behind Her Majesty is from a blast that officially marked the commencement of the Queensway's construction
As proposed in the detailed model that was prepared to illustrate the
Plan for the National Capital General Report (1950) the 'Cross-Town Parkway' cut through the city, joining the Eastern Entrance Boulevard east of the Rideau Canal. It was to be a broad, landscaped boulevard with travel lanes at grade.
The Plan's hierarchy of the regional roadway system showed divided, limited access roads in red, scenic driveways in green, and arterial roads in yellow.
Through the centre of the city the future Queensway could take advantage of the existing CNR rail lines and yards that stretched from Bank Street to Elgin.
Construction of the Crosstown (briefly to be called The Kingsway until the death of King George VI) took some time to get underway. Land assembly, relocation of the rail lines, and the final detailed design by transportation planners DeLeuw Cather which had translated the tree lined promenade into a modern freeway.
The official inauguration was timed to coincide with the Royal Visit of 1957. Mounted on a carpeted dais furnished with a pair of bergere chairs, civic dignitaries looked on as Queen Elizabeth pressed a button that set off a dynamite blast a safe distance away. She was apparently startled by the volume of the blast and remarked on the novelty of the ceremony.
A detonator button was mounted on a wooden base with the following inscription on this brass plaque: 'This electric button was used by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to detonate a dynamite explosion to inaugurate the Queensway Limited Access Highway, October 15, 1957, Ottawa, Canada.'
Going in search of the location of the symbolic blast, I discovered the remains of the old Hurdman's Road on the east bank of the river. This is the likely site of the detonation ceremony. When the first leg of the Queensway (from Hurdman's eastward) was opened to traffic on August 8, 1960 the highway builders were still promising to erect a memorial to mark the 1957 opening. On September 20 and November 3, 1960 the Ottawa Citizen was reporting that there would soon be a 'suitable plaque' on this site.
The first blast may have been purely symbolic. Was dynamite actually needed to erect the first bridge (south of the old Hurdman's Bridge) ? And, I don't think that the promised plaque was ever erected.
The Queen's dedication was one of a series of public events that took the Royal party on a counterclockwise loop around the City. That day I was taken to the corner of Alta Vista Drive and Smyth Road to wave at the passing motorcade. It is only now that I realize that she was on her way to the Hurdman's Bridge ceremony.
Hurdman's Bridge crossed the Rideau River just north of the Queensway's present day alignment. When the water is low you can see the concrete footings.
This reach of the Rideau River (shown at the time of the relocation of Union Station) was once crossed by a total of five bridges - three for the railways.
In cross section the highway's profile was designed to have wide landscaped verges and a grassy median.
It was actually built that way, with shoulder-less lanes, a wide green median strip, and a concrete roadbed. This shot is from the early 1960s looking west towards the Alta Vista overpass.
Looking east today from the same overpass, the greenery has been sacrificed for another travel lane and the grass strip is long gone.
The Queensway's original configuration had a fatal flaw - too many exit and on ramps in close proximity creating a dangerous interweaving of high speed lanes.
The westbound Kent Street off-ramp has been closed for decades.
Its grades are still there, slumbering under a heavy layer of grass.
The western section of the Queensway was the next to open. However, building through the middle of the city was considerably more complicated. By 1962 it had become clear that the limited access highway had to be elevated, and the cheapest way to do this was to build it atop a continuous mound. Shocked by the possibility of a cross town barrier (except where it was to be pierced by roadway tunnels) Ottawa City Council delayed the project for a year while it costed a freeway elevated on columns. This would have freed up more land, and been easier to traverse beneath, but was too expensive, and they returned to 'the mound'. Perhaps it was a blessing that we were spared the elevated expressway. The completed Queensway finally opened on August 8, 1966.
At Bronson Avenue the Queensway's right-of-way was squeezed very tight, and on October 31, 1962 the City of Ottawa and the National Capital Commission jointly expropriated the Coca-Cola bottling plant. This was Ottawa's second Coke bottling building. The first was on Queen Street west of Lyon. The building still stands, and is now the Dill Pickle deli, and a strip club. Coke moved to a modern plant on Coventry Road, which has since been demolished for overflow parking at the St. Laurent Shopping Centre.
While the Queensway came perilously close the Coke building on Bronson, it didn't need to be demolished after all. On January 28, 1964 the City of Ottawa and the NCC sold the plant to the Ottawa Public School Board for $800,000. They had paid just over $1 million for it two years earlier. Today it is about the be resold by the Ottawa Carleton District School Board, raising new concerns in the immediate neighbourhood about putting the property back to its intended use, a wider Queensway.
There are many reminders of the original Queensway
The Queensway was one of Canada's most ambitious urban highway projects. Conceived in the 1940s as a beaux-arts boulevard, it ended up in the 1960s as a crosstown expressway sandwiched in a narrow corridor between established neighourhoods - a planning mistake repeated in most mid-sized North American cities.
A copy of this photograph used to hang outside the reception area of the former Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton's Transportation Department. It disappeared around the time of the City of Ottawa amalgamation. The plume of black smoke behind Her Majesty is from a blast that officially marked the commencement of the Queensway's construction
As proposed in the detailed model that was prepared to illustrate the Plan for the National Capital General Report (1950) the 'Cross-Town Parkway' cut through the city, joining the Eastern Entrance Boulevard east of the Rideau Canal. It was to be a broad, landscaped boulevard with travel lanes at grade.
The Plan's hierarchy of the regional roadway system showed divided, limited access roads in red, scenic driveways in green, and arterial roads in yellow.
Through the centre of the city the future Queensway could take advantage of the existing CNR rail lines and yards that stretched from Bank Street to Elgin.
Construction of the Crosstown (briefly to be called The Kingsway until the death of King George VI) took some time to get underway. Land assembly, relocation of the rail lines, and the final detailed design by transportation planners DeLeuw Cather which had translated the tree lined promenade into a modern freeway.
The official inauguration was timed to coincide with the Royal Visit of 1957. Mounted on a carpeted dais furnished with a pair of bergere chairs, civic dignitaries looked on as Queen Elizabeth pressed a button that set off a dynamite blast a safe distance away. She was apparently startled by the volume of the blast and remarked on the novelty of the ceremony.
A detonator button was mounted on a wooden base with the following inscription on this brass plaque: 'This electric button was used by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to detonate a dynamite explosion to inaugurate the Queensway Limited Access Highway, October 15, 1957, Ottawa, Canada.'
Going in search of the location of the symbolic blast, I discovered the remains of the old Hurdman's Road on the east bank of the river. This is the likely site of the detonation ceremony. When the first leg of the Queensway (from Hurdman's eastward) was opened to traffic on August 8, 1960 the highway builders were still promising to erect a memorial to mark the 1957 opening. On September 20 and November 3, 1960 the Ottawa Citizen was reporting that there would soon be a 'suitable plaque' on this site.
The first blast may have been purely symbolic. Was dynamite actually needed to erect the first bridge (south of the old Hurdman's Bridge) ? And, I don't think that the promised plaque was ever erected.
The Queen's dedication was one of a series of public events that took the Royal party on a counterclockwise loop around the City. That day I was taken to the corner of Alta Vista Drive and Smyth Road to wave at the passing motorcade. It is only now that I realize that she was on her way to the Hurdman's Bridge ceremony.
Hurdman's Bridge crossed the Rideau River just north of the Queensway's present day alignment. When the water is low you can see the concrete footings.
This reach of the Rideau River (shown at the time of the relocation of Union Station) was once crossed by a total of five bridges - three for the railways.
In cross section the highway's profile was designed to have wide landscaped verges and a grassy median.
It was actually built that way, with shoulder-less lanes, a wide green median strip, and a concrete roadbed. This shot is from the early 1960s looking west towards the Alta Vista overpass.
Looking east today from the same overpass, the greenery has been sacrificed for another travel lane and the grass strip is long gone.
The Queensway's original configuration had a fatal flaw - too many exit and on ramps in close proximity creating a dangerous interweaving of high speed lanes.
The westbound Kent Street off-ramp has been closed for decades.
Its grades are still there, slumbering under a heavy layer of grass.
The western section of the Queensway was the next to open. However, building through the middle of the city was considerably more complicated. By 1962 it had become clear that the limited access highway had to be elevated, and the cheapest way to do this was to build it atop a continuous mound. Shocked by the possibility of a cross town barrier (except where it was to be pierced by roadway tunnels) Ottawa City Council delayed the project for a year while it costed a freeway elevated on columns. This would have freed up more land, and been easier to traverse beneath, but was too expensive, and they returned to 'the mound'. Perhaps it was a blessing that we were spared the elevated expressway. The completed Queensway finally opened on August 8, 1966.
At Bronson Avenue the Queensway's right-of-way was squeezed very tight, and on October 31, 1962 the City of Ottawa and the National Capital Commission jointly expropriated the Coca-Cola bottling plant. This was Ottawa's second Coke bottling building. The first was on Queen Street west of Lyon. The building still stands, and is now the Dill Pickle deli, and a strip club. Coke moved to a modern plant on Coventry Road, which has since been demolished for overflow parking at the St. Laurent Shopping Centre.
While the Queensway came perilously close the Coke building on Bronson, it didn't need to be demolished after all. On January 28, 1964 the City of Ottawa and the NCC sold the plant to the Ottawa Public School Board for $800,000. They had paid just over $1 million for it two years earlier. Today it is about the be resold by the Ottawa Carleton District School Board, raising new concerns in the immediate neighbourhood about putting the property back to its intended use, a wider Queensway.
There are many reminders of the original Queensway
I was new to Ottawa in the 1970s and I was staying with a friend who lived near the Civic Hospital. She apologized that the bathroom door did not close properly. She told me that the house had shifted during all the blasting to build the Queensway.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for all your posts. I just wanted to give you some modifications to one of your paragraphs, some factual and some grammatical.
ReplyDelete"At Bronson Avenue the Queensway's right-of-way was squeezed very tight, and on October 31, 1962 the City of Ottawa and the National Capital Commission jointly expropriated the Coca-Cola bottling plant. This was Ottawa's second Coke bottling building. The first was on Queen Street west of Lyon. The building still stands, and is now the Glue Pot Pub, Caffe Zucchero, and a strip club. Coke moved to a modern plant on Coventry Road, which has since been demolished for overflow parking at the St. Laurent Shopping Centre."
-- Justin
Hi Midcentury Modernist,
ReplyDeleteDo you have a contact (email) that I could forward a blog pitch to?
Thanks!
Stephanie
Nice article. Very interesting. I hope the Queensway is never widened again. The more roads are built, the more people use those roads and fill them up. Our focus should remain public transit.
ReplyDeleteDecent article! I was just in that OBE building taking photos on the day of the quake. Two of us were on the roof at the time, noticing a railing wobble and just assumed it was a big truck going by on the adjacent highway. Not all my photos are up yet, but pending... http://tricolour.net/photos/2010/06/23/index.html
ReplyDeleteJust to the east of that building are the remains of an on-ramp from Chamberlain eastbound. You can see the triangle of the curb cut that accesses the ramp down to the basement of the building from the east side and the small triangle of concrete over the south side of Percy Street in google satellite view: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&q=bronson+and+queensway&sll=45.405708,-75.698606&sspn=0.003115,0.006539&ie=UTF8&t=h&split=1&filter=0&rq=1&ev=zo&radius=0.19&hq=bronson+and+queensway&hnear=&ll=45.404985,-75.699974&spn=0.003115,0.006539&z=18
Very close shot from aerial view,thanks for the share.
ReplyDeleteI remember the Queensway under construction. Before it, there was a single span railway bridge across the canal, that pivoted in the middle to turn parallel to the Canal so as to allow tall boats pass on either side.
ReplyDeleteTo the west of the Canal there was a large railway siding area with many many lines of spare track for storage of railway cars. The Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus, when it came to town, played at the Auditorium (a great old rink, demolished later and now the YMCA) and the circus train cars were parked on the siding. The animals came across Catherine Street in a great parade every day to open the show.
There was a west bound exit just east of Bank Street that went straight down, cars backed up immediately. It was too short and dangerous. You can still see the grade, it was a parking lot for a long time but now a building is there. It was closed with many red-faced planners and experts to blame. Perhaps they went on to plan the Mirabel and Pickering airports - other disasters of a slightly later vintage.
There was also an east bound on ramp as you note just east of Bronson behind the School Book Depository. It was also too short and had to be closed because of the fear of collisions with cars exiting at Kent Street. Same planners, fate unknown.