Montreal city council kicked off its first session since breaking for summer recess with a heated exchange over the future of the Bonaventure Expressway.

Vision Montreal leader Louise Harel said her party wants work on the controversial span postponed, and that a moratorium should be imposed on the reconstruction.

Harel said the city should cut off all financing and contracts until decisions are made and budgets are determined for the Champlain Bridge, which is linked to the expressway.

"Until we know what's happening with the Champlain Bridge, it's like throwing money in the water," she said.

The Champlain Bridge has repeatedly come under fire for being in a very poor state.

A report released last month states that simple maintenance of the bridge would require investments of $18 million to $25 million per year for the next decade, and that "maintenance work will become increasingly extensive and complex and require increasingly long lane closures and greater inconvenience for users."

Mayor Tremblay said work on the Bonaventure should go ahead and his administration is seeking to authorize a $71 million loan for the first phase of the $203 million project.

"(Harel) should take more time to analyze what we're asking city council tonight," he said. "It's an investment of $70 million that we have to invest anyhow."

The city of Montreal and the Societe du Havre have spent years on designing a revamped 'waterfront entrance' to the downtown core, and after taking critiques from the public.

Preliminary construction is set to begin before the year is out and continue through 2014.

The work itself will be split into two parts: $142 to lower the Bonaventure Expressway to ground level after it crosses the northeasternmost tip of the Lachine canal, and $61 million to widen Duke and Nazareth streets between De La Commune and St. Antoine to four lanes each, and create a so-called 'greenbelt' in the area.

Harel argued Monday that there are more important infrastructure projects that should take priority at this time. She also argued that the Bonaventure Expressway is the only entrance route to the city that is not in need of immediate, urgent repairs.

She also asked the city why it would start this project now, putting an additional burden on taxpayers and potentially creating more congestion in and around Montreal.