The REM de l’Est project responds to the obvious need for a structuring public transit network for the east of Montreal. The establishment of certain sections in an aerial route was however presented as conditional to the success of the project by the promoter, CDPQ-Infra.
Posted at 9:00 a.m.
While a committee of experts is currently examining the issues of urban integration, including the aerial structure of certain sections, it is essential to remember the importance of diligently and thoroughly evaluating the option of a route extensive underground, which would avoid devastating social and urban impacts for some of the affected areas.
Although the difficulties associated with an underground route have been mentioned many times, all aspects of the project must be considered. A structuring transportation network, when planned in collaboration with local communities, has the potential to support concerted development of the sector and improve the quality of life of the resident population. Nevertheless, an aerial route can have significant consequences on the affected neighborhoods, which find themselves divided by an imposing structure.
Despite all the promoter’s efforts, the visual and noise pollution will also be considerable. These harmful effects are moreover amplified in dense environments, where the distance between the facades is shorter.
These same concerns led CDPQ-Infra to announce the undergrounding of a portion of the route downtown, which would emerge between De Bleury and Jeanne-Mance streets. However, what about the impact on other central districts, such as the Centre-Sud and the Faubourg Saint-Laurent, which already bear the scars left by other major transport projects on a metropolitan scale such as the Ville-Marie highway?
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
“An aerial route can have significant consequences on the affected neighborhoods, which find themselves split by an imposing structure,” writes the author.
At the end of a long process involving a total of more than 1,000 participants, the Special Urban Planning Program (PPU) for the Faubourgs1 had nevertheless underlined the importance of “decompartmentalization” and “opening up to the river” of the sector, in particular in order to “correct the major ruptures left by the urban renewal operations and the motorway developments from the 1950s to the 1980s” . However, not only would these districts be marked by a large aerial structure, but the transition zone, where the train would go from underground to aerial mode, would inevitably lead to an impassable barrier of a length that is difficult to estimate for the moment. The planned route also does not provide underground access to the Berri-UQAM station, although structuring connections would be essential for a project of this magnitude.
A feasible option
In order to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, it therefore seems imperative to evaluate the possibility of an underground route in the Centre-Sud and Faubourg Saint-Laurent with a descent to the east of the Jacques-Cartier bridge and the Canadian Pacific viaduct. This option has already been the subject of two feasibility studies, which concluded that it was feasible despite the potential risks.2.
For the continuation of the reflections, studies will have to be produced demonstrating not the limits of an underground route, but the means to achieve it, particularly in certain sensitive areas such as the Centre-Sud and the Faubourg Saint-Laurent.
This information, communicated in a clear and concise manner, is the key to an informed and complete process commensurate with the social project that is the REM de l’Est. The upcoming start of the BAPE consultations also represents an opportunity for a broad consultative process where all the fundamental questions surrounding this project could be addressed.
The REM de l’Est is an innovative and fundamental project that will mark the future of the metropolis. It is now necessary to take the necessary means so that this mark is not that of a heavy scar of regret for the local communities, but rather a lever for the vitality of the districts involved.
*Co-signatories: Marc-André Fortin, coordinator of the Table de concertation du Faubourg Saint-Laurent; Ron Rayside, Rayside Labossière architecture and urban planning