8 March 2007
Full Speed Ahead for Railway Overpass
Cambridge Ontario - Waterloo Region will move full speed
ahead to have a new railway overpass built on Hespeler Road near the Delta. However, attempts at brokering a deal with Canadian Pacific
Railway are at a standstill.
"The region will be moving ahead with that bridge as quickly as possible, but it isn't going to happen overnight," said Mayor
Doug Craig.
By next year, Waterloo Region will have the new bridge designed, an environmental assessment completed and necessary land acquired in
order to have the bridge completed in 2010.
This week, regional councillors learned that staff negotiations with the railway had stalled when terms of a memorandum of understanding
could not be reached.
Regional staff have been in talks with railway officials since June with regards to building a new marshalling yard outside Cambridge.
If the yard could be moved, it would dramatically reduce traffic delays at the Hespeler Road railway crossing - and might have
eliminated the need for the new overpass.
Just a few weeks ago, talks came to a head when the railway refused to stop marshalling activities at the Hespeler Road crossing even if
the yards were re-located outside the region. CPR would also give no guarantees that marshalling activities would not
impact traffic on some other road.
The report to the region's planning committee states: "The majority of the key elements of the (agreement) were negotiated
successfully, including the key financial terms; however, during the latter stages of these negotiations, two key elements that region
staff had identified to CPR from the outset as being essential to the (agreement) could not be resolved with CPR to the satisfaction of
region staff".
In April, regional staff will ask council to green light the project which has an estimated cost of $21.4
million.
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