Downtown roadwork will be minimal this summer, city vows
Earlier this month, the city of Montreal issued a public notice on a Friday afternoon that it was closing half of a major street for three weeks the following Monday morning.
In an ideal world, the city would have given more than three days notice about closing two lanes of Monkland Ave., a street with two bus lanes and a métro station, in an area plagued with congestion because of the Turcot project. The problem was, however, that the city itself only found out that morning about the project by Bell Canada to replace underground infrastructure.
“This is a perfect example of what we are trying to avoid,” said Lionel Perez, the executive committee member in charge of major roadwork projects. “This is a Bell Canada work site, and the borough was only notified three days before the work was set to begin.”
Perez explained that more than half of the projects on city’s streets are not done by the city of Montreal, rather other actors like natural gas and electricity providers, phone and cable companies. While they have to get permits from the boroughs to do the work, the information about projects sometimes falls through the cracks.
In an effort to improve communication, the city put into place what’s called a one-stop counter where utilities will be compelled to give notice well in advance of a work project.
“It will help us inform citizens, and to do better planning with our own work sites,” Perez said.
The one-stop counter was announced Friday as the city launched its roadwork season for 2017, which also detailed the major road projects for the year.
Most of the projects will avoid the downtown core, so people can travel there easily to celebrate Montreal’s 375th anniversary, Perez said.
“We’ll have road closures downtown, but we hope they will be mostly for festivals, and parades,” Perez said.
But there will still be some work in the downtown core, mostly on projects already underway, like the Bonaventure Expressway revamp and the mountain-to-river walkway that has seen parts of Sherbrooke St. W., Dr. Penfield and Pins Aves. torn up in the last few months. That project is set to wrap up in the beginning of the summer.
In all, the city will spend $684 million this year to redo 290 kilometres of roads and major water and sewer projects. That compares with $581 million spent on 198 kilometres last year. Among the major projects:
$22.6 million to repave Papineau Ave., between Jacques-Casault St. and Charland Ave.
The $141-million project to transform the Bonaventure Expressway into an urban boulevard is expected to be completed in September.
$13.2 million to repave Laurier Ave. W. from Côte-St-Catherine St. to Parc Ave.
The $37.5-million project at Laurentien Blvd. and Lachapelle St. in Ahuntsic-Cartierville will see 12 intersections redone between 2017 and 2021.
$16 million to revamp St-Michel Blvd. from Shaughnessy Blvd. to Jarry St.
$73 million to build an underground tunnel to serve as a water source for the Atwater water plant.
Perez said the city has put in place measures in the last few years to improve how it communicates with citizens about roadwork projects. Still, he admitted some problems remain where smaller roadwork projects in boroughs can be left off the city’s Info-Travaux website that details various roadwork projects.
Craig Sauvé, the opposition Project Montréal critic for roads and public transit issues, said he welcomes any moves to improve communication about planned and ongoing roadwork projects.
“I find I even have problems keeping track of everything that’s happening, and it should be really easy to find this information out,” he said. “I find it difficult to get information, and I’m a city councillor, so imagine what it’s like for citizens.”
Friday’s announcement only revealed the major projects for 2017. Perez said the details on which smaller streets will be repaved will be released on the city’s open-data website next week.