All parties were well-mannered and polite at a press conference announcing the finalizing of the Turcot Interchange replacement Friday but Montreal’s mayor Denis Coderre is already hinting that the easygoing atmosphere could be the calm before the storm.
“There’s a lot of sacrifice attached to it,” Coderre said, referring to the upcoming noise and road detours that will likely prove unpopular for people along the route.
He said that residents will be provided a place to “participate or ventilate,” said Coderre.
“It’s not going to be easy. It’s an ongoing process to ensure that we accompany them. It might be tough, so through the Transport Minister and ourselves and the citizen committee, we can sit together to see what we can do.”
The major work for the new $3.7 billion Turcot Interchange will begin this summer.
Transport Minister Robert Poeti made the deal official at the conference Friday, inking the contract with the KPH Turcot consortium, which will rebuild the aging road interchange.
The new interchange will be built along the same path as the roadway it replaces in an aim to diminish road detours.
One of the most difficult stages for residents will be to cope without the St. Jacques bridge which will be demolished sometime this spring or summer and its replacement will only be completed in about 18 months.
Poeti said that the new interchange will come with some upside for public transit users as will be equipped with four westbound express bus lines and a total of four reserved bus lanes.
