FINAL PLANS FOR REDESIGNED TURCOT INTERCHANGE UNVEILED.
‘Better’ for transit, pedestrians, cyclists
The final plans for Montreal’s new $3-billion Turcot Interchange promise an improved network of mass transit lanes and a better integration of residential areas by expanding green space, pedestrian walkways and bike paths.
Alain Dubé, the Quebec transport department’s project manager for the Turcot Interchange, said Friday that recent changes to the plans are designed to give priority to mass transit and encourage people to walk or take bicycles while at the same time maintaining traffic flow through one of the city’s busiest highway junctions.
“The changes are mostly related to urban integration and public transportation,” he said. “People will see that this is no longer just a Turcot Interchange but a green environment going through the entire area.”
Many of the changes involve creating green space and pedestrian walkways under elevated sections of the interchange as well as establishing parks that will help link neighbourhoods bordering the highways.
The elevated section of Highway 15 that runs over the Lachine Canal and through Ville Émard has been lowered and moved slightly west to distance itself from the Gadbois arena and recreation centre in Côte St. Paul.
Highway 15 will cross a new suspension bridge over the canal that planners hope will become an “emblematic structure for Montreal.” Planners have also increased the number of underpasses in the Ville Émard section and designed noise barriers along the highway.
A new Pullman Blvd. will be built at the base of the St. Jacques cliffs with a dedicated bike path bordered by green space. Links between this bike path and the existing de Maisonneuve Blvd. path have been added to the plans. A new dedicated bike path will be added to the section of de La Vérendrye Blvd. that will be extended to St. Patrick St. Overall, the final plans increase bike paths by 25 per cent.
Both Highway 20 and the CN rail tracks will be moved north toward the cliffs. Planners hope a train line will be built to carry passengers between downtown and Trudeau International Airport.
Reserve lanes for buses will run down the middle of the highway and there will be space for a potential tramway along Notre Dame St.
About 300,000 vehicles use the interchange every day and the traffic around Mont- real is increasing at a rate of slightly more than two per cent a year, Dubé said.
Highways 15, 20 and 720, which meet at the 45-year-old Turcot Interchange, will not be expanded, but more space will be added to highway shoulders to handle vehicles that have broken down.
Work on the project, which stretches from Green Ave. in the east to St. Pierre Ave. in the west, is scheduled to begin next year. Because most of the new construction will be built parallel to the existing highways or underneath existing ramps, Dubé said there will be minimum impact on traffic.
The transport and Quebec infrastructure departments have invited five consortiums to bid on the project. Many of the companies involved in these consortiums are well known to Quebecers, such as Snc-lavalin, Génivar, Dessau Inc. and Louisbourg SBC s.e.c. Former SNC-LAVAlin executives are currently under investigation by the RCMP. Dessau is an engineer- ing company linked to the de la Concorde overpass that collapsed in 2006 in Laval, killing five people, and Louisbourg is owned by Antonio Accurso, who was arrested last month and charged with fraud, corruption, conspiracy and breach of trust relating to water treatment contracts with the city of Mascouche.
Other bidders include three Spanish-owned construction companies, Acciona Infrastructure Canada Inc., Dragados Canada Inc. and Ferrovial Agroman Canada Inc.; two Nova Scotia construction companies, Construction Kiewit Cie and Dexter Quebec Inc., and a California engineering company, Parsons Canada Ltd.
Dubé said the government will announce the three finalists in June. The winner will perform the work on a fixedcost basis and oversee the design, subcontracting and construction. The government estimates the cost at about $2 billion.
The remaining $1 billion will be contracted out for peripheral work. This includes rebuilding the northern section of St. Remi St. and extending Côte St. Paul St. This work is scheduled to begin this summer.
The project will also include the reconstruction of overpasses and ramps at Angrignon, de La Vérendrye and Montreal West.
The projected completion date for the entire project is 2018.
The new interchange will include 145 kilometres of roads, 17.3 km of bus lanes, 6.3 km of bike paths and 31.5 hectares of green space.
Dubé said the province predicts that, because structures will be reduced by 69 per cent to 88,700 square metres from 283,700, maintenance costs will drop by $18 million a year.