What Was Said?

Years ago, I stood on the Huntmar overpass with Detroit-based, Palladium (now Canadian Tire Centre) architect-of-record Gino Rossetti. We were looking at both Ottawa’s main highway (the Queensway, Highway 417) and the adjacent site where a new NHL-caliber arena would be built for the modern day Ottawa Senators. Here’s what was said between us (circa 1991):

“You know Bruce, this is a great location for a new building. There’s just one problem.”

“What’s that Gino?” I asked.

“The highway has to be widened from four lanes to at least eight,” Mr Rossetti replied.

“Gino, you know that and so do I but I don’t want you to say that out loud to anyone else EVER because if you do, the province (of Ontario) will make us pay for that too.”

So here we are 20+ years later and MTO (Ministry of Transportation for Ontario) is finally getting around to it.

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