OttawaPlans to dig a tunnel under a major road in Kanata have been in the works for over 30 years. Now that construction is finally beginning this month, residents are bracing for over two years of disruptions.Plans for a tunnel under Terry Fox Drive pre-date amalgamationSannah Choi · CBC News · Posted: Aug 18, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours agoA new tunnel planned for west Ottawa has been decades in the makingThirty years and tens of millions of dollars later, a tunnel will be built over the next two years in Kanata to connect two sides of Terry Fox Drive. CBC’s Sannah Choi reports on why it took so long to break ground and where the money for it is coming from.Construction of a tunnel under Terry Fox Drive near Highway 417 in Kanata is expected to cause years of lane reductions and traffic detours in the area. The tunnel project will extend Earl Grey Drive in the Kanata Centrum shopping centre to meet the Didsbury Road intersection on the other side of Terry Fox Drive. The tunnel is expected to improve traffic flow and provide a new connection to Terry Fox Station, according to the City of Ottawa. The 140-metre tunnel will include bike lanes and sidewalks. Nearby intersections will also be upgraded.Residents say tunnel ‘doesn’t make sense’With work on the tunnel getting underway this month, some Kanata residents like Penny Cameron were surprised to learn about the construction project.”A tunnel? It doesn’t make sense to me,” she said.Cameron said she frequently uses the nearby Terry Fox Drive and Didsbury Road intersection to get to the other side of Terry Fox without problems.Melissa Clark visits the Centrum weekly and called the plans for a tunnel “ridiculous.””Why would they be doing this?” she said. “[The construction] is going to go on forever and disrupt people’s lives.”Kanata North councillor Cathy Curry was suprised to hear a tunnel was being built under Terry Fox Drive but says it will improve traffic flow in the commerical area. (Salah Tebessi/CBC)Planned for 30 yearsKanata North Coun. Cathy Curry was also surprised when she found out about the plans for a tunnel after taking office in 2022.”I thought, do we really need that?” she said.But after talking to city planning and infrastructure staff and OC Transpo staff, she understood the rationale for it.”I have no doubt that people will use it,” she said.Plus, the clocks can’t be turned back. The plans for the Terry Fox tunnel pre-date amalgamation.Marianne Wilkinson was on Kanata council when the project was first conceived and funds collected by Centrum developers in the 1990s.”The development is large here now. There are a lot of people that come here all the time. So it’s not that it’s not needed anymore. It’s just a case of it coming around,” she said.Marianne Wilkinson was on Kanata Council when plans for the Terry Fox tunnel were made in the 1990s. “I’m glad to see it’s finally happening,” she said. (Michel Aspirot/CBC)Projected to cost $28.5 millionThe tunnel, along with upgrades to nearby intersections, is projected to cost $28.5 million.According to the city, 95 per cent of the project is funded through development charges and the remainder from tax revenues.”It’s taken a long time, but thankfully the development charges collected back then are still sitting there waiting for the project,” Curry said.Construction is scheduled to be completed in December 2027.ABOUT THE AUTHORSannah Choi is a multi-platform journalist with CBC Ottawa. She previously worked at CBC Toronto and The Fifth Estate. Contact her at sannah.choi@cbc.ca
Construction of new Kanata tunnel to disrupt traffic for years
