Montfort Hospital says Kettle Island bridge could cost lives

Montfort Hospital said the proposed construction of a new interprovincial bridge in the east end of the city could cost lives because the traffic it would bring onto the Aviation Parkway could slow ambulances.

In May, the National Capital Commission recommended Ottawa's sixth interprovincial bridge cross over Kettle Island.

The corridor would have two lanes for cars and one for buses in both directions, as well as a multi-use path. It would connect Ottawa's Rockcliffe and Aviation parkways with Montée Paiement in Gatineau.

It would re-route thousands of trucks that clog up downtown Ottawa and divert them onto an expanded Aviation Parkway, right beside Montfort Hospital.

At a transportation committee meeting at Ottawa city hall on Wednesday Alain-Michel Sékula, Chair of the Montfort Hospital trustees, said the traffic that the new bridge would bring would tie-up ambulances in traffic.

"We're dealing with minutes. Life and death," said Sékula.

He said the bridge would work against the hospital's $300 million expansion that was completed in 2010.

"The configuration of our expansion was designed so that we would have easy access on Aviation Parkway, we would have easy access on Montreal Road," said Sékula.

When asked what other option for a bridge location he would support, Sékula said he did not know.

"Not my job. I have no idea. That's up to somebody else to decide," he said.