This is far from an ideal scenario.
In fact, it is a worst-case scenario that is being plotted in the heart of the Latin Quarter, with the planned construction of a huge electrical transformer station.
Hydro-Québec will move its current station on Côte Berri a few dozen metres to build another, three times more powerful, at the corner of Ontario Street, near the Grande Bibliothèque.
From 2029, the work will occupy one of the rare green spaces in this sector in need of love.1.
The decision has shocked many Montrealers in recent months as details have begun to emerge. And rightly so.
The state-owned company says it was the only acceptable site for the project, out of four potential candidates. Its project is essential to meet the growing energy needs of the metropolis, it adds.
IMAGE PROVIDED BY HYDRO-QUÉBEC
In blue: the area served by Hydro-Québec’s Berri substation, which has reached the end of its life. In orange: the perimeter where the new transformer station is to be built, according to the state-owned company. The green dot corresponds to the location of the future substation.
Accepting this premise, what would be the least worst of all the worst-case scenarios considered?
In my opinion: a 100% underground construction.
Before I talk about the technical feasibility of the affair, let me set the scene. You have probably read it in various reports, or seen it with your own eyes: the Latin Quarter is struggling.
What was once a vibrant area has become in a few years a condensation of all of Montreal’s ills. There are homeless people galore, vacant premises by the shovelful, open-air drug use, orange cones galore…
Things are going badly, but they could get better before long. Several projects are in the pipeline to bring residents and workers back to the area around Berri-UQAM.
The City of Montreal is planning 700 housing units on the Voyageur block. Developer Mondev will build a 15-storey rental tower. The Maison de la chanson et de la musique will move into the former Saint-Sulpice library. The École nationale de l’humour is talking about moving to the area. UQAM has even appointed a vice-rector for the revival of the Quartier Latin.
Diversification, beautification, sanitation: all this is promising. Hallelujah.
In this context, the erection of a 315,000-volt mega-electric station at height, one of the three scenarios envisaged by Hydro-Québec, seems to me to be anything but desirable.
Building a massive building on the site would be like replicating, with a modern twist, the brutalist behemoth built in 1968 by Hydro on the Berri coast, which has now become obsolete. It would be like taking a leg at the fragile revival of the neighborhood. No thanks.
Hydro is studying two other possibilities: a semi-buried station and another 100% underground.
All of these solutions present different “technical challenges,” the Crown corporation pointed out to me this week. The bill will be different depending on the project chosen. Of course.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The current Hydro-Québec Berri station, built in 1968 and now obsolete
Technically, the construction of an underground station seems possible. The Berri-UQAM metro station and the Orange Line tunnel are nearby, but they are not located directly under the coveted land. The field is clear.
It would require surgical precision. It would be complex. But it would not be a miracle either: “challenges” of this kind arise every time a new skyscraper sprouts up in Montreal’s dense downtown area – and God knows there have been plenty in recent years.
A similar energy project to the one planned by Hydro-Québec is underway in Toronto. Hydro One is currently building an underground distribution station in the city centre, near the shores of Lake Ontario.
Faced with a scarcity of land, the electrical services provider chose to demolish a heritage building brick by brick, before digging a hole three stories deep to install its equipment. The old building was rebuilt on top, and a small park was even created that will be open to the public.
The project, which has been going on for years, seems to be dragging on. Not everyone likes it. But it will at least have the merit of not being an impenetrable fortress in the heart of the city, once it is finished.
This aspect of accessibility will be crucial with the future Latin Quarter substation. Whether the project is 100% underground (which I hope) or semi-buried (which seems more likely), it will have to find a way to open up to the surrounding neighborhood at all costs.
It will take green and beauty, two commodities that are too rare in this sector.
Hydro-Québec promises to do things right. The Crown corporation will conduct various technical and environmental studies by 2026, and will consult the population. It will then launch an architectural competition in the hopes that the building will integrate “harmoniously” into the neighbourhood. Construction should take place between 2029 and 2033.
There will be, in my opinion, two essential keys to avoiding an urban, social and financial disaster. It will take ultra-rigorous planning and real transparency.
If it has not already done so, Hydro should study what happened with the Bellechasse garage of the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), in the Rosemont district.
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, THE PRESS
The green portion on the right and the triangular areas on the left will become a park accessible to Montrealers when the STM Bellechasse garage is completed.
The project is a financial fiasco and a counterexample of good management. It will cost $600 million, three times more than planned, and will open years late, due to major design changes made along the way.
But this garage also seems destined to become, and I am surprised to write this, an example of integration into its neighborhood. Because above its three underground floors, it now reveals what will become a green park, accessible to all.
A way, certainly expensive and poorly executed, to swallow the construction of a heavy technical building in the heart of the city. Hoping that Hydro learns some lessons from it, and that it seriously considers an underground scenario in the Latin Quarter.
1. Read the article “Montreal removes a first obstacle”