Province, city to pay for consultations on pedestrian bridge over new Turcot Interchange

Quebec and Montreal have agreed to split the cost of public consultations on a proposal to build a green walkway over the Turcot Interchange.

Those consultations will begin in the fall, and according toTransport Minister AndrFortin, work on the overhead park should start in 2020.

"What you are hearing from both parts is that we are willing and committed partners, and we are going to move along on this," Fortin said.

Luc Ferrandez, the Montreal executive committee member responsible for large parks, said the whole area surrounding the project will change.

"St-Jacques will change. The land besides St-Jacques will change. The bike paths will change. Everything will change,"Ferrandezsaid.

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

The project's rocky road

The walkway, known as theDalle-Parc, would connect the Notre-Dame-de-Grce, Ville-mard and LaSalle neighbourhoods.

It was conceivedas a way to provide residents with a way to cross the highway, andalso to address their concerns about traffic and pollution.

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