Consultation begins on Île-aux-Tourtes bridge replacement
Quebec’s Ministry of Transportation has begun the first phase of public consultation on the planned replacement of the Île-aux-Tourtes bridge linking Vaudreuil-Soulanges to the West Island.
Preliminary plans for the bridge were revealed on Monday at the Multi-Sports Centre in Vaudreuil-Dorion at the first of two scheduled public consultation meetings to gather input on the project.
Another public consultation is planned next Wednesday, March 27 at the George-McLeish Community Centre in Senneville (20 Morningside Ave.). The ministry is also gathering feedback through an online survey, in French only.
The new bridge is to be built north of the existing span, which carries an estimated 86,000 vehicles daily. Like the current bridge, the new structure will include three lanes in each direction and will add shoulder lanes that buses can use to bypass traffic, as well as a protected three-metre-wide path for pedestrians and cyclists.
But off-islanders hoping for a sign that the Ministry of Transportation would include a new rapid-transit link in the plans for replacing the 54-year-old bridge came away disappointed. Ministry spokesperson Martin Girard said while there is no specific plan to build a rapid-transit link such as the REM on the bridge, the bridge will be designed to accommodate the weight should one be needed in future. He said the project’s mandate did not include identifying a rapid-transit solution.
“People are working to make sure the bridge can adapt to a future need for public transportation,” he said. “For now the solution is the (existing commuter) train or the bus.”
For Geneviève Lachance, a St-Lazare city councillor and vocal advocate for extending the REM to Vaudreuil-Soulanges, without more specific plans for a rapid-transit link across the bridge the promise seemed like “smoke and mirrors.”
Lachance noted that planning alone will take an estimated six years, and bridge construction will take another five or six. Vaudreuil-Soulanges is one of the fastest growing regions in Canada, and by 2030 or so when the bridge is finished, she said traffic will be a major concern unless planners can provide a reliable and efficient public transportation alternatives for drivers. Provincial statisticians project the population of Vaudreuil-Soulanges will have grown 40 per cent between 2011 and 2036, she said.
“There’s no vision, no foresight. It’s very disappointing,” Lachance said “It’s discouraging to see them thinking only of today.”
The website is at www.transports.gouv.qc.ca/fr/projets-infrastructures/projets/reseau-routier/projets-routiers/cmm/ pont-ile-aux-tourtes/pages/pontile-aux-tourtes.aspx. The survey will remain open until April 12.