St. Henri, Westmount expecting two years of traffic jams

CTV Montreal: West-end jams loom Thousands of drivers will be scrambling for alternative routes when the St-Jacques St. access ramp closes for good. Max Harrold reports.

Residents of St. Henri and Westmount are preparing for years of traffic headaches, which will begin Monday when Transport Quebec begins major work on St. Jacques St.

On Monday an onramp from NDG to the 720 eastbound will be closed and demolished, although a replacement will be built about 500 m away, when the Turcot Interchange is rebuilt.

In April Transport Quebec will also demolish the St. Jacques St. bridge over the Decarie Expressway with the bridge expected to re-open in 2016.

The two-year closure of the bridge means 21,000 drivers will be looking for alternate routes that will take them through Westmount and St. Henri.

Derek Robertson said the repeated closures of the Ville Marie access ramps in the past few years has led to a lot of frustration in his neighbourhood,

"What's behind us here," he said, indicating St. Jacques St., "was just jammed with cars. Buses, they couldn't turn. In fact one morning it got so unpleasant that two gentlemen in suits got out and had a fist fight."

The St. Henri resident is certain the next two years will lead to more traffic, collisions, and pollution near schools and daycares.

"NDG, Hampstead, Cote Saint Luc and as well Verdun and LaSalle. How are these people going to get into the city? They're going to come by our local streets," said Robertson.

Art gallery owner Alison Rogers is bracing herself for what's to come.

"I think rush hour is just going to be like a nightmare. It'll probably be like LA traffic jams on the freeway," she said.

Borough mayor Benoit Dorais hopes residents will stay on main streets and not crowd residential roads in search of shortcuts.

"People will have to stay on the arteries, the big streets, the wide streets," he said.

"I hope we also get a reserved lane on Sherbrooke."

A reserved bus lane for Sherbrooke St. has been planned, but has yet to be implemented.

Instead Sherbrooke St. which has already been subject to higher-than-normal traffic flow for the past several years because of street closures caused by the McGill superhospital construction, will have a lane closed in March as the city of Montreal begins work on sewers.

"It is a bit of a perfect storm in the sense that we have the work done with the MTQ happening exactly the same time as the work done by the city of Montreal," said Westmount Director-General Duncan Campbell.