Projet Montréal promises to beautify and secure the area surrounding the Metropolitan highway in order to reduce the negative impacts of this “scar” which will soon be the subject of major repair work by the Quebec Ministry of Transport (MTQ).
“There are a lot of children who go under the highway to go to school, a lot of workers too,” says Laurence Lavigne Lalonde, City Councilor, member of the executive committee and Project Montreal candidate for mayor of Villeray. –Saint-Michel – Parc-Extension. “Still, it’s a very uncomfortable place to be. It’s a monster that separates our neighborhoods, and we have to humanize it. ”
Projet Montréal targeted five major poles of intervention, including the area around the Crémazie metro station, the Collège André-Grasset institutional pole, the Papineau-parc Frédéric-Back crossroads, the Cité des arts du cirque and the Saint- Michael (6e Avenue).
Among the proposed interventions, it is a question of planting trees, improving lighting, adding public art, making a sports field or a skatepark, in addition to adjusting the traffic lights and making better signage around the highway.
ILLUSTRATION PROVIDED BY PROJET MONTRÉAL
Projet Montréal promises to improve safety around Highway 40 in Montreal.
“When I cycle there with my children, I don’t feel safe, I’m scared,” says M.me Lavigne Lalonde. This infrastructure must be more pleasant and better thought out for the people who live with it on a daily basis. In the long term, the party wants to pressure the Ministry of Transport to revise the configuration of the Metropolitan highway more in depth.
Much more complex
The Ministry of Transportation intends to extend the life of the elevated highway by 25 years with a major overhaul that does not foresee any changes from its current configuration.
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, THE PRESS
Children passing under Highway 40 on their way to school
For Giuliana Fumagalli, outgoing mayor of Villeray – Saint-Michel – Parc-Extension and member of the new Quartiers Montréal party, Quebec should do more to remedy the damage caused by the road.
Highway 40 is a scar that divides neighborhoods in my borough, she denounces. It doesn’t make sense to rebuild this Goliath identically, like in the 1960s.
Giuliana Fumagalli, outgoing mayor of Villeray – Saint-Michel – Parc-Extension
On the ground and at the borough councils, the mayoress is constantly asked how to cross Highway 40 safely on foot or by bike, she says.
“We need a modern project, which makes room for other modes of transport, which allows safe movement from one side to the other, and which is vegetated as much as possible. And, why not, a project that is beautiful! A brushstroke and a little color! ”
Guillaume Lavoie, candidate for mayor of Villeray – Saint-Michel – Parc-Extension for Ensemble Montreal, notes that this outing is “a glaring example” of the lack of leadership of Projet Montreal.
“While it does not participate in any discussion on the evolution of work in Quebec for the repair of Highway 40, Projet Montréal is reacting like a pressure group rather than being a real administration. For our part, Ensemble Montreal is committed to redeveloping and greening the underside of the Metropolitan, ”he responded.
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, THE PRESS
The Saint-Michel school corridor passes under the highway.
Sarah Bensadoun, spokesperson for the MTQ, explains that several options were analyzed by the Ministry, which finally chose the option of rebuilding identically. “Several scenarios have been ruled out due to constraints, one of them being that it requires lengthy regional mobility studies,” she says. To deviate from what is there now, we are talking about a much longer and more complex project, and we still had to react quickly. ”
Albert Mondor, author, bachelor in biology and one of the co-founders of the Alliance for innovation in urban mobility infrastructures (ALLIIUM), gave an opinion to the MTQ at the beginning of October in which several experts ask the Department to correct certain wrongs caused by the highway.
“The Ministry of Transport is the ministry that plants the most trees in Quebec,” he says. They have expertise, they have excellent biologists. It’s a shame to see that this major project will not benefit from their enlightenment. ”
Major repair work on the Metropolitan highway
Major repairs to the Metropolitan Autoroute are currently in the planning phase at the MTQ. The first interventions will be carried out on the eastern section of the highway, which corresponds to the elevated part of the Metropolitan highway located between Saint-Laurent and Provencher boulevards. The work schedule has not yet been announced. “This work is likely to cause noise, but the noisiest interventions are carried out before 12:30 am, notes the MTQ. The Department will also give priority to carrying out certain work during the day or in weekend blitzes, to avoid nuisance at night to residents of the area. ”