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Unless you’re living on top of it, the work going on beneath the downtown core on Ottawa’s Confederation line LRT tunnel could easily go unnoticed.

Much of what’s happening, as machines mine a 2.5-kilometre tunnel 15 metres underground, remains far from the view of a curious public.

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Yet, as Matthew Pearson reports, there’s lots going on down there.

There are three downtown stations planned for the LRT. Excavation at the Lyon station was complete some months ago. Work is nearly done at Parliament station, but progress at Rideau station continues to inch along.

Why is the Rideau station excavation taking longer?

It was to be expected, said Gary Craig, the city’s head of LRT design and construction.

Digging in that area’s soft ground calls for a different tunnel design, different temporary support structures and even the hiring of a special adviser.

“That was the station where the lower productions were expected to happen,” said Humberto Ferrer, the deputy project director for OLRT Constructors, the group that is building the $2.1-billion Confederation line,which opens in 2018.