Give your Christmas tree a new lease on life after the holidays this year. Bring it over to the Rideau Canal Skateway Christmas Tree drop off so we can reuse them! Your tree will be used as a decoration on the Rideau Canal Skateway, and afterwards, will be transformed into wood chips to be used throughout the Capital.

In 1907, one of the arguments to convince residents of the Village of Ottawa East to vote favourably on amalgamation into the City of Ottawa was that was the city would use its influence with the Dominion Government to secure a bridge over the Rideau Canal at Mutchmor Street (Fifth Avenue) connecting to Clegg Street. Only a few years later we have implementation of this capital idea!

The National Capital Commission has amassed a huge collection of images of Ottawa and area over the years. Included in this collection is a 1929 view of the roadway alongside the Rideau Canal from the Bank Street Bridge in Ottawa South.

Here's a then & now comparison.

Sidewalks on Echo Drive east of Bank Street and Pig Island nestled between boathouses on the canal? Yes, in a certain era. 

What's new?

Official sod turning event is September 29, 2017.

Planned Detours

Work to repair the Rideau Canal walls in downtown Ottawa between Bank Street and Pig Island along the Eastern shoreline began in December 2016 and is now nearing completion.

Repairs on the walls themselves are complete and new railings have been installed. Work is now underway to re-install light standards and to repair the Rideau Canal Eastern Pathway. The project will conclude with site re-beautification including laying sod and removing temporary construction trailers as well as other features of the construction site.

Beginning at approximately 9pm on June 8, 2017 the contractor will be removing the safety measures along the southbound lane of Colonel By Drive.  A signed detour route will be in place as this work will require the overnight closure of Colonel By Drive in this area.  A further notice will be circulated closer to the closure to confirm the date and time.

Once the contractor has fully withdrawn from the site, the Rideau Canal Eastern Pathway will be reopened.  This could occur as early as June 9, 2017.

South part (Mohammad al-Asad, 2008)

North part (Mohammad al-Asad, 2008)

Bank Street Bridge over the Rideau Canal

1912, *restored in 1993
Infrastructure

View additional images of structure.

The Bank Street Canal Bridge carries Bank Street along a roughly north – south direction over the Rideau Canal, linking The Glebe to Old Ottawa South. It also passes over Queen Elizabeth and Colonel By drives, each of which extends along one side of the canal.

Work to repair the Rideau Canal walls between Bank Street and Pig Island along the eastern shoreline began in December 2016 and has been progressing on schedule. After a work platform was installed along the site, the contractor began the demolition work associated with this project—removing the old guard rails and chipping away damaged concrete from both the face and top of the wall.  

During the week of February 20th 2017, reinforcements and form work began to be put in place to ready the site for the new concrete.  The concrete will begin to be poured and placed in early March. The project to repair this section of the Rideau Canal Walls in downtown Ottawa is on schedule to be completed by Spring 2017.  The in water work should be completed by April with the shoreline and trail work to follow.  

Those wanting to access the canal skateway from the stairs at Echo Drive/Avenue Road have been facing an obstacle, namely the stairway closure including concrete barriers at the bottom of the stairs prohibiting easy crossing of Colonel By Drive.

There is a promise to fix this — an update from Ian Grabina from the office of Councillor David Chernushenko:

The Rideau Canal has not always been the quiet waterway surrounded by green parkways which it is today. In the nineteenth century it was a busy commercial and industrial zone. North of Pretoria it was bordered by warehouses, wharves, and railway tracks. South of Pretoria the canal banks were more open but there were wharves, a brick works, and private boathouses. The north side of Dow’s Lake was an industrial site lined with lumber piling yards, a cannery and railway tracks.