The City of Ottawa is undertaking its first Stormwater Tree Trench pilot project at the intersection of Glebe Avenue and Bank Street. While the City has installed tree trenches with soil cells, this is the first pilot to incorporate stormwater infrastructure. The plan will involve planting two Honey Locust trees in soil cells with stormwater engineering (pipes, inlets, catchment basins) to direct road run-off into the trench to be absorbed by the soil - thereby absorbing rainwater where it falls, filtering pollutants from rain run-off, diverting rainfall from the city drain pipes, and watering the trees.
CAFES has been a long-term advocate for the installation of Stormwater Tree Trenches and for overall stronger linkages between green infrastructure and stormwater management in Ottawa. For more information, see our post about stormwater and tree trenches HERE. We are very excited to be seeing a stormwater tree trench installed in the city!
As on-site construction is currently underway, City of Ottawa engineers have agreed to meet with CAFES and interested members from our network for an educational site visit at Glebe and Bank. The site visit will take place at 10:00 am on Monday November 18th. We will meet on the South-West side of the intersection of Glebe Avenue and Bank Street, and a technical expert from the City will be there to show us the construction site and provide an explanation of how the tree cells will work in this pilot.
RSVP here if you would like to join!
