Around a hundred trucks will circulate daily, starting Wednesday, in the vicinity of the site which will host the Northvolt battery cell mega-factory, in Montérégie: the company has just obtained authorization to fill in wetlands.
This permit granted by Saint-Basile-le-Grand allows the company to carry out “soil preparation” while the felling of trees continues.
“Carrying out this work will require the movement of around a hundred trucks per day,” Northvolt said in a press release on Tuesday. Routes have been put in place to limit the impact on traffic as much as possible, taking into account peak hours and cohabitation with other road users. »
Northvolt’s $7 billion complex will be built on 170 hectares of land that straddles Saint-Basile-le-Grand and McMasterville. The first phase of the preparatory work involves the felling of around 14,000 living or dead trees.
This project will notably affect 13 hectares of wetlands. The site – where the Canadian Industries Limited explosives factory was once located – is home, among other things, to a nesting area for the least bittern, a bird considered a vulnerable species, whose presence has been detected three times.
According to Northvolt, the trucks will use a portion of Route 223 located in McMasterville as well as rue Bernard-Pilon to reach Route 116.
“Signage will be installed upstream of the work sector,” underlines the company.
The authorization from the Ministry of the Environment, the Fight against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks (MELCCFP) allowing the cell manufacturer to begin work is contested by the Quebec Center on Environmental Law (CQDE) before the Superior Court of Quebec.
This case will return to court on March 15. By then, the company should have completed the felling of trees and the filling of wetlands.
Quebec and Ottawa put up to 7.3 billion on the table to convince Northvolt to establish itself on the South Shore of Montreal. The money is used to finance the construction of the factory in addition to temporarily subsidizing part of the factory’s production.