Pedestrian bridge over new Turcot Interchange will be built after all

Quebec Transport Minister André Fortin says a green walkway over the Turcot Interchange will be built, after the project was axed a number of times.

Fortin says he has been in talks with Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante, and consultations on the bike and pedestrian bridge should begin soon.

The City of Montreal wants to spend $125,000 on a feasibility study for the project, which will be discussed at a city council meeting Monday.

The overpass was part of a plan presented in 2010 for the new highway, but under the tenure of six different transport ministers in the intervening years, the idea disappeared, reappeared and then vanished again.

The project's rocky road

The walkway, known as the Dalle-Parc, would connect the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Ville-Émard and LaSalle neighbourhoods.

It was conceived as a way to provide residents with a way to cross the highway, but also to address their concerns about traffic and pollution.

When the project was last excluded from the blueprints, some residents said they felt as though they had been duped — that the bridge was only included so they would support the project and was taken out of the contract after their support had been won. 

The previous administration at city hall had been trying to bring the walkway, or a version of it, back.

Not long after her election, Plante said she, too, was in talks with the Transport Ministry about the project.

At that time, Fortin said he would think about reviving the idea, but only after construction of the interchange was finished.