MONTREAL—Patience has long been a necessary quality for residents navigating Montreal’s myriad array of construction projects and traffic it creates.
That quality will be put under special strain for West End residents come August when several major works will choke eastbound routes into the city -- and for years to come.
The borough of Notre-Dame-de-Grace and Quebec’s Ministry of Transport have each scheduled large scale works for August that will cause major disturbances to commuters coming into the city from the west side of the island.
St.-Jacques St. will be closed at Decarie, and the overpass which crosses the highway will be demolished as part of the first phase of the Turcot Interchange. That work will eliminate the access ramp for the eastbound Ville-Marie for at least two years.
Commuters may think about taking Upper Lachine Road instead. Think again.
The borough is digging up De Maisonneuve Blvd. across from the Vendome Metro as a decaying sewer system is urgently replaced. And Sherbrooke St. West won’t offer up much relief, either, as another aging sewer system will be dug and replaced there.
“Their basements have been flooding and it’s getting worse and worse every year and they have been waiting for a decade for this work, so I think their work takes priority,” NDG councillor Peter McQueen said of the work in front of Vendome station. “The St-Jacques overpass is not falling down. So a six month delay, I think Transport Quebec could handle it.”
McQueen said that Montreal’s ongoing city corruption scandals are partly to blame for the construction logjam as projects were delayed so contracts could be reviewed. The sewage work will take nine months to complete.
It all adds up to no east-bound routes into the city between Highway 20 and Cote-St-Luc with the city and the MTQ still to agree on alternatives. Drivers, public transport users, cyclists, and pedestrians should all expect problems.
“The MTQ and all of its partners involved in this project that is linked to this new Turcot Interchange are actually working on a plan to make sure it was cause less annoyance,” said St-Pierre.
Joanna Giammaria, who commutes to her work in NDG from Ville d’Anjou, said she still wasn’t sure how she was going to adapt.
“They have no routes for us, so I’m not sure. Where I live it’ll probably take me as long by public transport as to be stuck in traffic coming here,” Giammaria said. “I haven’t heard anything from the city. I read all about it on the internet.”
