Westmount strikes out in bid to halt work
Westmount wanted work on section of Turcot halted
A Quebec Superior Court judge has ruled against the city of Westmount in its attempt to halt construction on a section of the Turcot Interchange over noise pollution fears.
The city had filed an injunction seeking to have Transport Quebec and the consortium in charge of rebuilding the Turcot Interchange suspend the work currently underway in order to guarantee noise levels from the expressway stay within reasonable limits.
Westmount argued that new plans for the project finalized in 2015 — which the city said it only found out about in January 2017— went against previous plans to lower a stretch of the highway bordering the municipality that would have helped cut down noise levels for nearby residents.
If the stretch of highway is built according to current plans, the city argued, it would violate governmental decrees and the Environment Quality Act by exceeding 65 decibels in “several locations” in Westmount and 70 decibels in others.
But in a 41-page judgment rendered on May 17, Quebec Superior Court Judge Élise Poisson ruled the city didn’t prove the project will be unreasonably noisy and sided with the transport ministry ’s argument that halting construction on the specific section could have “disastrous and difficult-toquantify” effects on the entire Turcot project.
The three-kilometre stretch in question, called Track B in the judgment, runs between Glen Rd. and Atwater Ave.
“Issuing an interlocutory injunction to stop the work on Track B would paralyze, for all intents and purposes, the Turcot Project construction site for a period of at least one year,” Poisson wrote.
Poisson ruled the evidence provided so far doesn’t prove the changes to the highway section will make the noise any worse than it would have been with the previous plans. She also found “adequate” mitigation measures have been proposed to ensure noise levels aren’t significantly increased.
In a recent statement, Westmount said it will study the judgment closely, consult with its lawyers and consider its options. The city said it will not be commenting on the decision for now.
“The city will continue to work to ensure that its citizens have the quality of life to which they are entitled,” it said in the statement. “While we did not receive the judgment we hoped for at this preliminary stage of the file, legal procedures are ongoing and we still hope to win our case at trial.”