Montreal plans to develop park between Victoria, Champlain bridges

The city of Montreal wants to develop a park for pedestrians and cyclists along the river between the Champlain and Victoria bridges.

Municipal officials launched a call for tenders earlier this month, asking for proposals of different scenarios that will make the shore banks more accessible to the public.

Sylvain Ducas, the city's director of urban planning, told Radio-Canada that the city wants to take advantage of the construction that will already be taking place for the new Champlain Bridge.

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"There is an opportunity to recover part of the St. Lawrence shoreline, to transform the banks into trails, bike paths, pedestrian walkways from the Champlain Bridge to the Cit du Havre. This will allow a continuous link of the shore from the Lachine borough all the way to downtown," Ducas said.

Various scenarios will be explored, such as transforming the Bonaventure Expressway, which falls under the jurisdiction of the federal government, into an urban boulevard.

The part of the Expressway which is closest to the downtown core and belongs to the City of Montreal is already under construction to turn it into Boulevard Robert-Bourassa.

Another scenario would be to slightly displace the expressway, which was built in 1967.

Ducas said a preliminary study, conducted in collaboration with the Jacques-Cartier and Champlain bridge authorities, determined that the Bonaventure Expressway could be moved about 10 meters north of its existing location.

Opposition councillors are calling the city's plans welcome news.

"To make the river banks accessible to cyclists and pedestrians, it's still good news," said Craig Sauv, a Projet Montral city councillor in the Sud-Ouest borough, which is the area affected by the proposed project.

"There is no denying it there is no link for bikes to access this magnificent location."