Gridlock at Atwater is real, but who is responsible?

Construction work causing traffic chaos not found on city’s website

One of Montreal’s most congested intersections due to ongoing construction isn’t indicated on the city’s Info-Travaux website and hasn’t elicited so much as a tweet on the city’s social media account that’s dedicated to warning of traffic delays and road closures caused by fires, gas leaks and infrastructure work.

And yet the gridlock at Atwater Ave. and René-Lévesque Blvd. W. is real, as this week’s return of Montreal police officers to control the traffic lights at the intersection indicates.

Who’s responsible for the turgid traffic?

No one, apparently, since everyone who was questioned this week, including the city, said they’re not responsible, at least not for all of it.

The city says it isn’t doing any construction work in the quadrilateral that includes René-Lévesque, Atwater and nearby Tupper and Lambert-Closse Sts.

Yet sections of road in at least five spots have been blocked with orange cones or opened up for construction work for months, reducing the number of lanes on each street.

All of the construction in the sector is the work of private companies, city spokesperson Audrey Gauthier said.

One of the companies she named is Démolition et excavation Démex Inc., which filed for municipal permits to obstruct Tupper and Atwater.

However, Démex, is in fact working for Devimco, the developer tearing down the former Montreal Children’s Hospital at Atwater, between Tupper and René-Lévesque, for a multi-tower condo and apartment project.

The Devimco project has caused occasional obstructions on the north side of René-Lévesque and a continuing obstruction on Tupper, which is reduced to one lane, since last year.

This week, however, the developer’s demolition company also shut down all three lanes on the east side of Atwater, between René-Lévesque and Tupper, which is forcing northbound traffic to deviate to the west side and reducing northbound and southbound traffic to one lane in each direction. Traffic in both directions is being squeezed through a one-block stretch like icing through the tip of a cake icing bag.

Pierre Langlois, a consultant who handles communications for Devimco, said the closure of Atwater is a security measure because the demolition company is tearing down the last building of the former Montreal Children’s Hospital complex at Tupper and Atwater.

However, the shutdown of Atwater coincided with back-to-school and increased traffic this week.

The road closure, which started on Monday, is scheduled to last the entire week, Langlois said on Wednesday. On Thursday, he said the demolition company planned to reopen one lane of northbound Atwater as of Friday, with the rest reopening as planned next week.

The other company Gauthier named is Environnement Routier NRJ Inc., which obtained municipal permits to block off a little more than one lane along the south side of René-Lévesque, east of Atwater, a stretch of the east side of Atwater, below René-Lévesque, and at the southeast corners of Atwater and René-Lévesque and of LambertClosse and René-Lévesque.

But surprise: Environnement Routier NRJ is working on contract for a city agency, the Commission des services électriques de Montréal. The agency, which is responsible for burying electrical lines, issued the $1.2-million contract to Environnement Routier NRJ in June.

The commission’s contractor is making room underground for additional lines to support the residential development in the area, commission chairman Serge Boileau said. However, he said he was unable to say on Thursday whether the additional lines are for the Devimco project, a second condo project being built by Prével on the south side of René-Lèvesque, just west of Fort St., or for both.

It’s unclear who put up orange No Parking signs on both sides of Lambert-Closse, below RenéLévesque, this summer. However, construction workers are parking their personal cars in those spots each day.

Boileau said the electrical commission is also carrying out regular maintenance under the NRJ contract. The work is scheduled to be finished in October, he said, at which point the commission will bill the developer or developers for whatever portion of the work was done for either project.

Langlois said the electrical commission’s work isn’t for Devimco’s project.

Prével didn’t respond to the Montreal Gazette.

The police presence to manage traffic on Atwater, meanwhile, is being charged to Devimco’s demolition company.

A corner of the former Children’s Hospital site lies in Westmount.

Démex had to purchase occupancy permits from both municipalities to close Atwater.

Westmount, but not Montreal, made the police presence a condition for its approval.

“That was part of the deal to get the occupancy permit,” Westmount Mayor Christina Smith said.

Devimco, through its contractor, is being charged $90 an hour per police officer, Langlois said.

The transformation of the hospital site is a complicated operation, and the developer has been working with the city and residents to minimize disturbances, he said.

The city’s Gauthier said the Ville-Marie borough charged Démex $123,450 for the permits. No permit fees are charged to the electrical commission, she added.

“It is a bit of a perfect storm,” Smith said of the different obstructions. “And it’s having a huge impact on the residents who live around that neighbourhood because there’s a ton of dust and the traffic is a gridlock. Between that and the Turcot, it’s very hard to get around that area.”

During morning rush hour on Thursday, traffic on northbound Atwater was backed up as far south as Lionel- Groulx Ave., 600 metres and three traffic lights below RenéLévesque. And during evening rush hour on Wednesday, the traffic jam on westbound René-Lévesque began 400 metres and two traffic lights east of Atwater, at Fort St.

Atwater/René-Lévesque has become a critical intersection because it leads to what is for now the only way to get onto westbound Highway 20 for kilometres around due to the Turcot project. Vehicles coming from the north take Atwater south to St-Antoine St. W., which leads to the temporary highway entrance on Rose-de-Lima St.

And despite Montreal’s insistence that it isn’t doing construction work in the sector, the city is upgrading the Lambert-Closse pumping station 150 metres south of René-Lévesque.

It’s the only one of the construction zones in the sector that’s indicated on the city’s Info-Travaux website — although the website locates the work east of Atwater. But real-life construction workers have closed a lane of Atwater and are digging next to the sidewalk on Atwater.