• Thursday, August 25th, 2011
It seems counter-intuitive, but you can never estimate how many people will use a new bridge by counting the number of people currently swimming across the river.
This group advocates more spending for public transportation, but where will the money come from in the provincial budget? Ultimately, it seems riders will have to share more of the burden.
Source: Montreal Gazette
Unless Quebec changes its spending priorities and abandons or puts on ice some of its plans to expand the road and highway network, a crisis will follow, Alliance members warned.
“We are like a housing cooperative that is using our reserves to put in a swimming pool, rather than fix the leaky roof,” said Christian Savard of Vivre en Ville.
According to a report released Wednesday by the Alliance, studies have shown that building more road capacity only results in more congestion. For each increase of 10 per cent in road capacity, there is a 4.7 to 12.2 per cent increase in road congestion within 10 to 15 years.
• Wednesday, November 10th, 2010
The original plan to repair the Turcot interchange that connects the 20 and 15 highways was heavily criticized last spring. This “new” plan doesn’t make any improvements and is a step in the opposite direction. Here’s why:
First, $3 Billion to re-build a small piece of highway is insanity. It’s double the price of the original plan and it seems like a great way to keep construction workers busy forever, at taxpayer expense.
Second, the plan fails to address the biggest complaint of the current Turcot interchange: the community south of the 20 is separated from the rest of the city, in effect creating a slum.
Third, the plan calls for several factories to be removed to make way for the new road, but there is no funding to do so!
Finally, if the plan is executed on time (highly doubtful based on past projects), the interchange will be ready in 2018 – just in time to experience the full effects of peak oil. They are planning for a road that will not be used at 100% capacity because the price of oil/gasoline will prohibit many drivers from using it.
I imagine that $3 Billion could buy us a nice train from downtown to the airport, but that wouldn’t be as politically advantageous.
Source: CBC News
The new highway will be north of the current one, with a reserved lane in each direction for buses, taxis and carpool vehicles. Tremblay said it would “encourage the creation of a vast new neighbourhood” between Highway 20 and the Lachine Canal.
There are several large factories in that space right now, and Transport Quebec’s plan doesn’t include measures to purchase, expropriate or move any of them.
That leaves a modest space for any new neighbourhood, about three kilometres long and 150 metres wide, Projet Montréal Leader Richard Bergeron said.
Only a “pseudo-neighbourhood” could sprout in such a space, said Bergeron, a former urban planner with the City of Montreal.
“Can you imagine a neighbourhood with a highway on one side, and big industry on the other? It’s impossible!”
Bergeron accused the province of manipulating the public into believing the plan is sustainable. “They lied this morning,” he said simply.
Vision Montréal Leader Louise Harel echoed Bergeron’s concerns, saying the new design will isolate Montreal’s southwest borough. “Barriers divide the population, and it’s worse for people who live there,” said city hall’s opposition leader. “What they proposed is a virtual world, but it doesn’t exist in reality.”
From Spacing Montreal:
I highly recommend readers visit the MTQ’s new website devoted to the Turcot, browse the interactive map and experience for themselves the new heights of green-washing. Be sure to check out the ‘Présentation modélisée du projet’. Just be sure you have something strong close at hand.
From Walking Turcot Yards:
Apply the Actual Reality Formula (ARF) for major Quebec construction projects and you will end up with a modest completed in 2020 at a cost of 7-10 Billion dollars. And 43,000 jobs created is a pretty sweet deal, but it still doesn’t answer the question of why the Quebec Liberal Party is so deeply beholden to the construction industry.
The government says there will be less expropriations as though they are born again urbanists! Don’t buy their spin. They are trying to bypass the fact that for at least 7 years people living near the project will have to live in a construction zone nightmare.
• Sunday, October 26th, 2008
For more information and to sign the petition.
We should be using these funds to completely rethink and redesign the southern part of Montreal says Gaétan Legault of the ‘Coalition pour humaniser Notre-Dame‘ «We have a not to be missed opportunity to design a sustainable development project, including a completely integrated public transit network, where Montrealers’ access and view of the river would finally be unimpeded by artificial barriers».
Both coalition groups want improved quality of life in the Montreal neighborhoods affected by the MTQ highway projects and they criticize the Quebec government:
- For ignoring the many Montreal Department of Public Health warnings about studies reporting the negative health effects of air pollution upon residents living within close proximity of high traffic roads (especially seniors and children);
- For the lack of strategies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the lack of coherence of these highway mega projects with the ‘Ministère de l’Environnement et du Développement Durable et des Parcs’ 2006-2012 Action Plan;
Via Walking Turcot Yards
