Cartouche
Senior Member
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2017
- Messages
- 493
- Location
- Canada
- Vessel Name
- On The EdJ
- Vessel Make
- Former 390 owner now Sundancer 380
The Project
Just a heads up for all coming up the Rideau through Kingston this year I copy a letter back from the engineers re the Fourth crossing being built presently over the Cataraqui river just passed the old Rideau marina site. This will effect all transients of this area, and especially down-bound traffic during the week trying to catch the 3 pm bridge as we know if you miss that one the next is 6pm,
our original concern is attached after we went aground and the response from the city:
Our Letter: below and the city response after, feel free to contact me if you are planning to come up the Rideau this summer.
Mr. Van-Buren, I write to you today in relation to the work on the City’s Fourth crossing over the Cataraqui River, connecting Gore Road in the east to Elliott Avenue in the west. First let me state that I am incredibly supportive of this project as a taxpayer and a citizen of the City of Kingston. To finally provide connectivity to all parts of our diverse city is a huge accomplishment, however, given our recent experience I felt compelled to bring my concerns to your attention.
We are frequent users of this fabulous heritage water route available to all boaters from the Victoria Day weekend in the spring until Thanksgiving in the fall. Since the onset of the bridge construction, we have truly marveled at the progress being made by the construction company Peter Kiewit Sons ULC. However last Friday, June 18th as we made our way from our home port at Kingston Marina enroute to Kinston Mills Lock, we encountered a situation that was both alarming and quite frankly dangerous.
When we left Kingston Marina there was a 15-knot wind from the southwest which we typically manage without issue. However, as we passed the old Rideau Marina property and made the turn to the crossing, we realized that the transport bridge was down and a spotter boat was present. Please let me be very clear that the employee manning the spotter boat was phenomenal and immensely helpful. He explained that they could only hold us for 30 minutes, that he was sorry for the delay and that they had just dropped the transport bridge moments before our arrival. He said that it would take an additional 15 minutes to lift the bridge for us to pass once they had completed the load delivery that was in progress.
I will concede that I was becoming anxious at this point as my depth gauge was showing a mere 1.5 feet of water under our keel and the canal at that location is only 60 feet wide. We are a 42-foot trawler weighing approximately 30,000 pounds when fully loaded with fuel and water and have a flybridge some 17 feet high with a width of about 15 feet. All this to say that maneuverability was drastically altered in shallow water with the wind blowing as it was that morning. Unfortunately, because we had to wait some 45 minutes for the transport bridge to lift we ended up aground in the mud floor and even worse, over top a floating buoy with polypropylene line that was a very real risk of wrapping around our prop. The spotter, who advised us that he is not technically supposed to help boaters, did indeed assist and used his considerable boating skill to take a line from our boat and pull us free. He then towed us back into the channel so that we were able to make our way back to the abandoned Rideau Marina location to wait for the transport bridge to raise.
Whereas we understand the needs of the construction company to have access to the temporary road in order to deliver loads of product, the users of the Rideau Canal also have the need to be safe. I wonder if perhaps a compromise solution is possible?
Would it be possible for the construction company to schedule incoming deliveries, with whatever frequency and duration they require to keep the project moving forward and publish that schedule so that both Parks Canada staff and boaters using this waterway would know what to expect. We are increasingly concerned that, with increased boat traffic as the summer progresses, there will be an accident while boaters wait for the transport bridge to be raised. We would suggest that providing a schedule indicating when the transport bridge will be lowered will dramatically reduce this risk.
Thank you in advance for reading this letter and for any consideration you can give to our request.
With great respect,
Sincerely,
Edward and Joanne Billing
683 Arbour Crescent, Kingston, Ontario
MV Cartouche, Mainship 390
City Response:
Edward and Joanne,
Thanks for submitting your concerns regarding the Third Crossing traffic control in the Cataraqui River.
We have reviewed your letter with our team internally and can provide some insight on the operation and notifications going forward.
The navigation channel in the Cataraqui River is maintained Federally during navigation season (Victoria Day to Thanksgiving) during a typical year.
The process:
The project team worked closely with the Federal regulators in 2020 and in Feb/March 2021 regarding impacts to marine traffic as a result of the bridge construction. The project team proposed a traffic control plan to the Federal regulators which proposed short-term delays to marine traffic throughout the week at particular times of the day. The proposal includes provisions for spotter boats to locate approximately 100 meters away from both north and south sides of the bridge with delays of up to 30 minutes to allow lowering of the lift span for construction purposes. We provided a general notice to NAVWARN and to NOTMAR about upcoming stoppages for the 2021 season.
Since May 14, a weekly schedule is being sent to the Federal regulators a few days in advance for the following week. Keep in mind that this is an estimate of the future work. *NOTE: this weekly schedule has not been shared with NAVWARN/NOTMAR. Read further below.
The weekly schedule lists several potential blocks of time each day but those blocks are only used if needed since its dependant on construction progress during that actual day of work. Any stoppages of marine traffic is tracked on a tracking sheet and submitted to the Federal regulators on a weekly basis.
This proposal was reviewed and approved by the Federal regulators and has been in service since May 14 this year and was in effect the later end of 2020.
Your concerns of June 18, 2021:
The letter conveys your familiarity with the Cataraqui River which is a windy corridor and one that you can manage typically without issue. The lowering of the lift span does create a navigation blockage for larger boats and would create a different maneuvering scenario.
We reviewed the tracking sheet and saw that a large boat was in the vicinity (northbound) at 8:12am and delayed until 8:36am on June 18 which corresponds to the timing in your letter.
The spotter boat indicated the potential delay duration to you and that concerns with draft was becoming an issue with the shallow water in the river. Eventually the boat was caught in the mud and a buoy was also involved in the situation. We apologize for any anxiety and stress that your group experienced that was caused by this stoppage.
Building on this, your suggestion to share the lowering schedule with the public can be carried out. We will include into our weekly circulation the one-week lookahead schedule with NAVWARN and NOTMAR going forward. Keep in mind that the blocks of time are reserved times and may not all be used. For certainty, it’s best advised to boat during the non-reserved times to ensure that stoppages don’t occur in the navigation channel.
Thanks for sharing your concerns and suggestions with our team. Feel free to contact Dan Franco, the Project Manager of the Third Crossing if you need more info. dfranco@cityofkingston.ca
Have a good summer.
Thanks,
Dan Franco, P.Eng.
Projects Engineer
Major Projects Office
City of Kingston
1211 John Counter Blvd,
216 Ontario Street Kingston, ON K7L 2Z3
613-546-4291, ext 3226
dfranco@cityofkingston.ca
our original concern is attached after we went aground and the response from the city:
Our Letter: below and the city response after, feel free to contact me if you are planning to come up the Rideau this summer.
Mr. Van-Buren, I write to you today in relation to the work on the City’s Fourth crossing over the Cataraqui River, connecting Gore Road in the east to Elliott Avenue in the west. First let me state that I am incredibly supportive of this project as a taxpayer and a citizen of the City of Kingston. To finally provide connectivity to all parts of our diverse city is a huge accomplishment, however, given our recent experience I felt compelled to bring my concerns to your attention.
We are frequent users of this fabulous heritage water route available to all boaters from the Victoria Day weekend in the spring until Thanksgiving in the fall. Since the onset of the bridge construction, we have truly marveled at the progress being made by the construction company Peter Kiewit Sons ULC. However last Friday, June 18th as we made our way from our home port at Kingston Marina enroute to Kinston Mills Lock, we encountered a situation that was both alarming and quite frankly dangerous.
When we left Kingston Marina there was a 15-knot wind from the southwest which we typically manage without issue. However, as we passed the old Rideau Marina property and made the turn to the crossing, we realized that the transport bridge was down and a spotter boat was present. Please let me be very clear that the employee manning the spotter boat was phenomenal and immensely helpful. He explained that they could only hold us for 30 minutes, that he was sorry for the delay and that they had just dropped the transport bridge moments before our arrival. He said that it would take an additional 15 minutes to lift the bridge for us to pass once they had completed the load delivery that was in progress.
I will concede that I was becoming anxious at this point as my depth gauge was showing a mere 1.5 feet of water under our keel and the canal at that location is only 60 feet wide. We are a 42-foot trawler weighing approximately 30,000 pounds when fully loaded with fuel and water and have a flybridge some 17 feet high with a width of about 15 feet. All this to say that maneuverability was drastically altered in shallow water with the wind blowing as it was that morning. Unfortunately, because we had to wait some 45 minutes for the transport bridge to lift we ended up aground in the mud floor and even worse, over top a floating buoy with polypropylene line that was a very real risk of wrapping around our prop. The spotter, who advised us that he is not technically supposed to help boaters, did indeed assist and used his considerable boating skill to take a line from our boat and pull us free. He then towed us back into the channel so that we were able to make our way back to the abandoned Rideau Marina location to wait for the transport bridge to raise.
Whereas we understand the needs of the construction company to have access to the temporary road in order to deliver loads of product, the users of the Rideau Canal also have the need to be safe. I wonder if perhaps a compromise solution is possible?
Would it be possible for the construction company to schedule incoming deliveries, with whatever frequency and duration they require to keep the project moving forward and publish that schedule so that both Parks Canada staff and boaters using this waterway would know what to expect. We are increasingly concerned that, with increased boat traffic as the summer progresses, there will be an accident while boaters wait for the transport bridge to be raised. We would suggest that providing a schedule indicating when the transport bridge will be lowered will dramatically reduce this risk.
Thank you in advance for reading this letter and for any consideration you can give to our request.
With great respect,
Sincerely,
Edward and Joanne Billing
683 Arbour Crescent, Kingston, Ontario
MV Cartouche, Mainship 390
City Response:
Edward and Joanne,
Thanks for submitting your concerns regarding the Third Crossing traffic control in the Cataraqui River.
We have reviewed your letter with our team internally and can provide some insight on the operation and notifications going forward.
The navigation channel in the Cataraqui River is maintained Federally during navigation season (Victoria Day to Thanksgiving) during a typical year.
The process:
The project team worked closely with the Federal regulators in 2020 and in Feb/March 2021 regarding impacts to marine traffic as a result of the bridge construction. The project team proposed a traffic control plan to the Federal regulators which proposed short-term delays to marine traffic throughout the week at particular times of the day. The proposal includes provisions for spotter boats to locate approximately 100 meters away from both north and south sides of the bridge with delays of up to 30 minutes to allow lowering of the lift span for construction purposes. We provided a general notice to NAVWARN and to NOTMAR about upcoming stoppages for the 2021 season.
Since May 14, a weekly schedule is being sent to the Federal regulators a few days in advance for the following week. Keep in mind that this is an estimate of the future work. *NOTE: this weekly schedule has not been shared with NAVWARN/NOTMAR. Read further below.
The weekly schedule lists several potential blocks of time each day but those blocks are only used if needed since its dependant on construction progress during that actual day of work. Any stoppages of marine traffic is tracked on a tracking sheet and submitted to the Federal regulators on a weekly basis.
This proposal was reviewed and approved by the Federal regulators and has been in service since May 14 this year and was in effect the later end of 2020.
Your concerns of June 18, 2021:
The letter conveys your familiarity with the Cataraqui River which is a windy corridor and one that you can manage typically without issue. The lowering of the lift span does create a navigation blockage for larger boats and would create a different maneuvering scenario.
We reviewed the tracking sheet and saw that a large boat was in the vicinity (northbound) at 8:12am and delayed until 8:36am on June 18 which corresponds to the timing in your letter.
The spotter boat indicated the potential delay duration to you and that concerns with draft was becoming an issue with the shallow water in the river. Eventually the boat was caught in the mud and a buoy was also involved in the situation. We apologize for any anxiety and stress that your group experienced that was caused by this stoppage.
Building on this, your suggestion to share the lowering schedule with the public can be carried out. We will include into our weekly circulation the one-week lookahead schedule with NAVWARN and NOTMAR going forward. Keep in mind that the blocks of time are reserved times and may not all be used. For certainty, it’s best advised to boat during the non-reserved times to ensure that stoppages don’t occur in the navigation channel.
Thanks for sharing your concerns and suggestions with our team. Feel free to contact Dan Franco, the Project Manager of the Third Crossing if you need more info. dfranco@cityofkingston.ca
Have a good summer.
Thanks,
Dan Franco, P.Eng.
Projects Engineer
Major Projects Office
City of Kingston
1211 John Counter Blvd,
216 Ontario Street Kingston, ON K7L 2Z3
613-546-4291, ext 3226
dfranco@cityofkingston.ca
