Summer overhaul of St-Jean Blvd.
If you thought driving in and out of Montreal was stressful, the West Island is about to see it’s share of traffic headaches.
Drivers might want to avoid St-Jean Blvd. for the much of the summer. Beginning June 18, the city of Dollard-des- Ormeaux will shut down three of six lanes along the major artery.
Construction will last eight weeks, which means the traffic headaches will last into August.
All three southbound lanes between Labrosse Ave. and Shakespeare St. will be closed.
The city will divert two-way traffic to the other side of busy boulevard.
Dollard Mayor Alex Bottausci said the city will try to mitigate traffic congestion as best it can.
“We’ll have two lanes heading south and one lane heading north in the morning,” the Dollard mayor said. “And we’ll reverse it to two heading north and one south in the afternoon.”
Last summer, road work on St-Jean Blvd. by a public utility proved to be a traffic nightmare for local residents and merchants.
“That was a total frustration and havoc toward our community,” Bottausci said.
“This summer it’s our project and we’re managing it from A to Z. We’ve given ourselves a tight time frame of eight weeks and we’re going to stick to it.”
The city is also planning a series of public consultations sessions to inform residents and merchants about the upcoming road work. The next consultation is June 13 at the Dollard Civic Centre Theatre. Another session is planned for June 26 at Coolbrooke Park.
“We want to make sure the residents are well-informed,” the mayor said.
“We’re doing public consultations for two reasons. We want to make sure the residents are wellinformed … about (St-Jean Blvd.)
“The second is to look at traffic and security and speeding on our streets from a global perspective. I’m trying to build a portrait for Dollard-des- Ormeaux. Of the 8,000-plus doors that I knocked on during the (municipal election in November), the underlining theme, over and over again, was ‘speeding on my street.’
“The comments even came from (a resident on) a cul-de-sac!” Bottausci added.
“Out of this grew this idea of having public consultations, gathering the data, compiling it, then bringing in the experts and having it looked at by our engineers, and really look at a longer term strategy and plan in terms of how to address this.”
The first-term mayor also said information brochures about the upcoming road work will be sent out “locally to the different areas, in terms of different routes, how to get to their homes.”
“It’s also going to be on our website. We’re going to be pushing it from social media channels.”
But the mayor is realistic about the traffic woes ahead.
“We’re asking drivers to be patient,” he said. “And we’re doing our best to get in and get out quickly so people can get back to their lives.”
And there are no plans for major road work on St-Jean Blvd. next year, the mayor said.