MONTREAL - Five years after the University of Montreal proposed the idea of expanding its campus, new construction is edging closer to reality.
The provincial government will fund a $350-million expansion of the school into the CP railyard in Outremont, Finance Minister Raymond Bachand announced Monday.
The city of Montreal, along with the federal government and the provincial government, pledged $120 million to the project in 2009.
Abandoned in 2008, the railyards will become home to the university's chemistry, biology and physics departments, a new library, and plenty of student housing.
"Seventy per cent of this project is scientific equipment, and modern laboratories for physics in general," explained Bachand.
Announced in 2007, the project will get underway this spring after years of study, as the earth in the railyards is either hauled away or decontaminated.
There's still plenty of work to be done, said Mayor Gerald Tremblay.
"We'll move the railroads, and there's an overpass that needs to be built. We have to put infrastructures in place," he said.
Opponents to the new construction including many residents of nearby Park Extension, who say they object to the noise and disruption construction will bring to their lives.
Some say they are also concerned that expanding the school will bring more students to the area, increasing the price of apartments.
Announcement protested
Meanwhile, Monday's announcement was met with a protest from dozens of students.
A line of about two dozen police officers kept students separated from politicians, as students held a 'die-in' to protest the tuition increases that were finalized in the provincial budget introduced last week by Bachand.
The student protesters say the funding for the construction project is a provocation, because the amount being spent is more than half of what will be collected from students in tuition fee hikes.
