Ottawa Citizen 1 March 2025
Brockville approves $172,000 for
Railway Tunnel lighting
Staff wants to avoid equipment failure
The city will spend another $172,000 on
lighting for the Brockville Railway Tunnel, hoping to avoid a repeat
of last year’s equipment failure scenario ahead of a
significant tourism season.
And while the city expects to spend
annually on new tunnel lights, officials hope that annual dollar
figure will trend downward.
Brockville council on Tuesday backed a
recommendation to spend up to $172,350 on replacement lighting
equipment for the tunnel, a popular tourism attraction.
A staff report to council notes the
recently approved city budget did not include the proposed tunnel
lighting maintenance project, and staff considered it “prudent”
to raise the issue before the tunnel opens for the season in the
spring.
The tunnel had to be closed for part of
last spring, after city workers discovered large-scale damage to the
lights inside the attraction.
The constant dripping in the tunnel
left mineral deposits on the lenses of the lights, which in turn
caused water infiltration, leading to their rapid failure. Meanwhile,
water infiltration into the pedestals along the tunnel also took out
many of the enablers that drive the facility’s light show.
The tunnel opened in mid-May with
a reduced light show as the city awaited delivery of new lighting
equipment, and was then restored to its former glory in
early July.
While the city expects a better outcome
from its new equipment, it also wants to be ready to deal with any
unexpected issues, given the massive influx of tourists expected for
this June’s Tall Ships Festival.
The tunnel’s lighting system includes
13 kiosks with controls and electrical panels; 728 lighting fixtures;
and 26 lighting enablers.
Each kiosk has two enablers that
together control 56 light fixtures, notes the staff report.
“Based on the observed rate of
equipment failure,” the report adds, parks department staffers are
recommending that an annual “generalized rate of replacement of
equipment” be determined.
For starters, they suggest the lighting
and enabler equipment of one of the 13 kiosks be bought and replaced.
That would include 56 lighting fixtures, 56 lighting covers, and two
enablers for one kiosk, as well as four spare enablers in case of
failures.
“If this season is at all like the
previous seasons, we should be prepared to want to change out an
entire module,” operations director Phil Wood told council Tuesday.
“That is at least going to give us
our best fighting chance to keep the system working, hopefully
without interruption, hopefully without gaps, in the coming tourism
season.”
Buying the equipment now gives the city
a better chance to react, or even replace a section of lights
proactively, keeping those that are still working as spares, added
Wood.
The maximum of $172,350 would be funded
from the city’s fiscal policy reserve, so it would have no impact
on the tax levy.
Coun. Jeff Earle bristled at the
thought of an annual amount for lighting replacement.
“The way I read the motion in there,
is that it meant that we were going to be putting $172,000 a year for
the next 13 years,” he said.
Earle calculated a slightly higher
average of $200,000 a year for 13 years, which would see the city
spend $2.6 million.
But Wood replied that the annual amount
for replacement is expected to go down, given the improvements the
city has made to guard against water infiltration.
“We’d like to see the attrition
rate drop off,” said Wood.
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