Parts of the Met will stay unlit until autumn
Q I am wondering why street lights on the Metropolitan Expressway are not on at night. While driving there recently going west from the Anjou interchange, I noticed the lights were off in spots all the way to Côte-de-Liesse expressway heading to the airport.
Why is it so?
Joe Ferrara, Montreal
A Transport Quebec is undertaking a project to repair the central median on the Metropolitan between the Décarie Circle and Langelier Blvd.
“The work is going on at night, and the central median is where all the wires for the expressway are located, so when they are doing the work, the electricity is cut for safety reasons,” explained Martin Girard, a spokesperson for Transport Quebec. “The project will last until the end of the summer.”
He said the crews are not always in the same spot, and the lights will be off only in the spots where they are working. The lights will be on during weekends and on nights when the crews are not working, Girard said. The work will also involve some night closures of the expressway.
The work is part of general maintenance that needs to be done on the expressway, Girard said.
SQUEAKY WHEELS FOLLOW-UP
In response to a question about a chronically late bus published on July 23, we received a note of praise from St-Léonard resident Jeff Black about how the Société de Transport de Montréal handled his complaint:
Since writing you, I was contacted by Claude Nadeau, who called in response to my complaint and explained much of what was in the response. I also spoke with Jean-Guy Boileau, the “Surintendant Livraison de service exploitation autobus.” He works at the nearby bus terminal and is a very decent fellow. He actually boarded the bus (two stops after the stop I reported) at the time he knew I would be on the line expressly to speak with me and other passengers to address the issue. That was quite a welcome expression of concern. As I explained to both of them, often it is the lack of communication — especially for bus riders (as opposed to the métro where the communication is better). They both agreed about the communication aspect and said the STM is working on it with the upcoming implementation of GPS information being added to the phone application and information displays at métro exits. Many thanks, Jeff Black, St-Léonard
We received several responses to last week’s column in which city officials detailed plans to deal with the problem of cars turning left from Queen Mary Rd. onto either Mountain Sights Ave. or Trans Island Ave. The question was submitted by Ted Lazarus.
Here is one response: There is another issue at the corner of Trans Island and Queen Mary: Bixi.
The bike-sharing company sets up its rack on the northeast corner of Trans Island and Queen Mary in front of a fire hydrant. I have complained to Bixi, police, the borough office. I have been told that Bixi is allowed to break this rule (no parking in front of fire hydrants) and create this dangerous situation. Bixi needs to remove this stand and alleviate this dangerous situation that it has created.
Steve Korolnek, Snowdon