While they understand the difficult context in which CDPQ Infra finds itself, residents of northwestern Greater Montreal say they are exasperated by the new postponement of several sections of the Réseau express métropolitain (REM), including the downtown branches, West and North will not see the light of day before the end of 2024.
Updated at 12:13 a.m.
” I am very disappointed. And I hope to still be able to walk when the REM is going to be functional. Because we count on it a lot here,” says Jean-Pierre Couture, a resident of the Laval Islands, where a station has been under construction for several months.
CDPQ Infra announced Monday that the delivery of 18 REM stations, downtown, in the west of the island and in the northern crown, will have to be postponed again. We will have to wait until the end of 2024, the worksite still being hard hit by the discovery of century-old explosives in the Mount Royal tunnel in July 2020. The opening of the South Shore branch is however maintained at fall 2022. As for the route to connect the airport to the city center, we hope to be able to “confirm the date of commissioning this fall”.
To maintain the opening of the Deux-Montagnes and Anse-à-l’Orme antennas in 2024, CDPQ Infra intends to “reverse” the sequence of its tests, by deploying the tests from Saint-Eustache, and not Brossard. It will then be possible to avoid the Mount Royal tunnel and not delay the tests. Otherwise, the Deux-Montagnes antenna would have had to wait until 2026.
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, THE PRESS
Jean-Pierre Couture, resident of Laval Islands
Saying he is “aware of how lucky” he is to live in a neighborhood that will be served by the REM, Mr. Couture does not hide the fact that he is getting impatient.
It’s going to be amazing when it works.
Jean-Pierre Couture, resident of Laval Islands
But in the meantime, “on some days, 100 12-wheel trucks can pass in front of my house; we cannot enjoy our land”.
“It’s tough on morale”
Not far from there, Danielle Bélanger and her spouse Pierre Landriault are also looking forward to 2024. “With the construction site, we can no longer really go downtown, except by car. It’s hard on morale, it’s not easy, “says Mme Bélanger, who would find it “exaggerated” to have to push back again. “Before, I worked in the city center and it was going really well. There, we hope that, soon, we can go to Bois-Franc to go to Côte-Vertu, then to the city center. It would be a lesser evil,” adds Mr. Landriault.
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, THE PRESS
Réjean Gravel, resident of the Laval Islands
Réjean Gravel tries to remain optimistic. “Of course it’s a shame, but at the same time, explosives in a tunnel, I understand that it changes the working method. You can’t make omelettes without breaking eggs,” he says, lamenting, however, that the City missed an opportunity in his neighborhood. During the work, an area located near the water supply, which he considers deficient, was opened up. “They could have taken advantage of it to improve the drainage in our neighborhood,” says Mr. Gravel.
We are on a small island, we had a small train station, and everything was fine. Why do we need such a monster, if five or ten minutes from here there will be another? I never understood, and I like even less with the delays.
Iris, resident of the Laval Islands for nearly 15 years
Transport planning expert at the University of Montreal Pierre Barrieau fears the consequences that these new reports will have on the use of public transport. “We still had an opportunity here to convince people, post-COVID-19, to board the REM. What I’m afraid now is that a lot of people will adopt habits, and that it will be hard to convince them afterwards, ”he summarizes.
Explosives that changed everything
In November 2020, the Caisse de dépôt announced that the opening of the antenna using the Mount Royal tunnel would be postponed for 18 months following an “unforeseen” detonation. The 30,000 drilling holes required during the work therefore had to be carried out using a camera and a remote control system, as a safety measure.
The “general conditions of degradation of the central wall of the vault of the tunnel under [l’avenue] McGill College” are also responsible for these extended deadlines, says CDPQ Infra, in addition to the effects of COVID-19 on the workforce and supply.
To citizens frustrated by these new delays, the spokesperson for CDPQ Infra, Jean-Vincent Lacroix, suggests “taking a step forward”.
We are talking about a project first announced in 2016, and ultimately, that we will deliver at the end of 2024. Less than 10 years to build 67 km of light rail, that’s a very good schedule on the scale world.
Jean-Vincent Lacroix, spokesperson for CDPQ Infra
These new delays will inevitably lead to increased costs. The estimate of 6.9 billion will not be respected, but the final cost is unknown. On Monday, the Minister of Transport, François Bonnardel, indicated that the situation of the Mount Royal tunnel was “very unpredictable”. “We would have liked to have had a delivery earlier, but the imponderables and these situations lead us to continue to support the Caisse”, he noted, assuring that Quebec will not hesitate to improve the mitigation measures at need. “Currently, the services we offer are doing the job,” he said.