This would, in turn, overburden the Decarie-Demaisonneuve intersection, which would have traffic coming from 5 directions. So traffic to that intersection coming from the west was to be banned and rerouted along Crowley or up Girouard, which has become a two-way street with one lane in each direction.
Making Girouard a two-way street between Upper Lachine and Sherbrooke, has meant closing access to the entrance to the southbound Decarie, which is also a way to go to the 40 west. (the red shaded bit in the photo to the left). Those getting on the highway have to find another way and I'm not sure how they're doing it. The one-lane section of Girouard southbound below Sherbrooke has become so overburdened that it frequently causes bottlenecks at Sherbrooke and Girouard.
So the very congestion at Sherbrooke that the hospital organizers had hoped to avoid is currently happening. Former city councillor Jeremy Searle has recommended finding a way to allow cars to get back onto that now-wasted highway entrance and I think that a clever mind could get this done, even if it meant widening a road by demolishing one of those shoebox homes on the east side of Girouard. If anybody has a suggestion on how to make it work, it would be highly appreciated.
Looks like the new MUHC hospital has painted itself into a corner, so to speak, but dare I assume that the issue of vehicular access to the site was in fact foreseen years ago while deliberately and carefully avoiding any suggestion of (gasp!) expropriation concerning those aged and mostly run-down dwellings and businesses on that entire block bordered by Crowley, Prudhomme, Decarie, and St. Jacques, the demolition of which would enable ramps from Route 15 to be built directly onto hospital property.
ReplyDeleteYes, I can already hear the howls of protest against such a notion, but one must remember that when the Decarie Expressway itself was built from 1964-1967, entire rows of duplexes and commercial establishments were razed alongside Decarie Blvd. itself and NDG's Minto Avenue consigned to oblivion.
Personally, I cannot see why anyone would want to live on Addington Avenue or anywhere near that constant roar of traffic and air pollution, but that's just me. To each his own.
If it wanted to, the city could make a generous offer to purchase these properties, just as it had done in the recent past having erased from the map those east end streets Bruneau and Caty near the Lafontaine Tunnel entrance. These were likewise residential streets which over the decades found themselves surrounded by heavy industry, constant rail and truck noise and vibration, and thus unliveable for all practical purposes. The residents were more than happy to move out.
From another angle, I assume that there will be northern access to the MUHC hospital site from the south side of Ste. Catherine St. in the general vicinity of Prince Albert and York, just south of de Maisonneuve, since what currently exists on that former railway property is scrub brush and the overgrown foundations of an ancient building.
Chances are, though, that nearby Westmount residents will raise a stink about this idea as well, but then can everyone ever be expected to be pleased about all of this? Most assuredly not, so perhaps we'll end up having to airlift patients, staff, and visitors into the hospital site by a silent, stealth-technology, helicopter shuttle-service?
As for the problematic--yet presumably temporary--closure of the onramp from Girouard south onto southbound Route 15: for the time being at least, vehicles will simply have no alternative but to utilize the Decarie service road downramp just south of Cote St. Luc Road, or alternatively take Cavendish south to Route 138 West and there on to Route 20, or avoid the 15 altogether by using Route 40 East to major southbound through-roads such as St. Denis, Papineau, Pie IX, Route 25, etc., depending upon where one is headed, of course, so a little imaginative pre-planning will be in order, to be sure. Get out your MapArt city directories, folks.
In any event, the upcoming demolition of the Turcot Interchange will soon render all Route 15, 20, and 720 traffic access into a virtual Lovecraftian "crawling chaos".
So glad I sold my car years ago. I no longer wake up screaming. ;-)
Happy motoring!
When the draft of the City's Urban Plan was released in 1992, it proposed getting rid of residential zoning between the expressway and Decarie, south of the CPR tracks. This was long before the hospital was a distinct possibility, but already, replacing small tenants and small owners with commercial buildings was proposed. As City Councillor for the district at the time, I worked with the residents to fight this (we had a well-attended zoning consultation in the area the previous year) and this became the only significant change in the borough's part of the urban plan. Despite the suggestions of the prevous poster, Prud'homme and Decarie residents wanted to stay and have been there for an additional 20 years.
ReplyDeleteWhile there's certainly nothing wrong with wanting to stay in one's home in a familiar neighbourhood, when one's health, safety, and peace-of-mind are concerned, there are limits.
ReplyDeleteThe sad fact is that property values alongside Decarie Blvd. inevitably decreased when the "Depressway" was built so that property owners were stuck unless they were willing to sell at a loss. Stubborness to "stick it out" has been an unwise decision for most, for what savvy investor would buy and move in to replace them?
In addition, I personally know of Decarie apartment dwellers who finally ended up moving out in disgust when their landlords, desperate to find new tenants, became reckless as to who they allowed in: namely a criminal element including drug dealers, Russian Mafia, prostitutes, etc. Building services deteriorated, repairs were neglected, burst pipes, rats, and so on. It has been well-reported in the media (as well as in this blog) that this area has been the scene of murders and arson.
The situation is unlikely to improve either unless and until the "Depressway" is strategically covered over--as was done in Boston--with a park, pedestrian and bike paths, and some limited parking space, but this notion has been tossed around for decades and therefore is very unlikely to become a reality for the foreseeable future.
Therefore, Snowdon residents can only hope that when the Turcot and Ville St.Pierre Interchanges are upgraded, the Metropolitain Blvd. elevated is rebuilt to street level (as is currently planned for the Bonaventure Expressway), the Metro Blue Line is extended into the west end--all of this, of course, after man has colonized the planet Mars.
It seems to me that the city made a mistake putting the next offramp from decarie south where it did. Having it exit onto demaisonneuve means that there has to be a lot of tricky restructuring that has to be made. Making demaisonneuve two-ways east of addington and remaking the decarie-demaisonneuve-st.jacques intersection (already an awful intersection) seems like it would take a lot of work.
ReplyDeleteThe solution would have been to make a similar offramp slightly further south on the decarie expressway. This offramp should have exited onto addington just north of st. jacques. The intersection at addington and st.jacques could easily be redesigned and then the traffic coming off the highway could take two quick lefts (onto st.jacques and onto decarie street) to access the hospital.
That's a good idea but I am pretty sure they thought of that and for some reason there was a problem with that idea. Addington and St. James is much higher up off the expressway than the one they built. That might've been a consideration.
ReplyDeleteThere is some historical irony in this issue. The original residences on Girouard near deMaisonneuve were demolished in the 1930 to allow for the building of the overpass completed in 1931. That is why the residential housing on the Girouard "indents" north of the overpass are substantially different from the rest of the street and on much smaller lots. The purpose of the overpass was to provide faster access between NDG/Snowdon and downtown from rue St Jacques using the streetcar-friendly grade coming up from the Transit Commission barn on de Courcelles. The only prior access point had been through the Glen and into Westmount. A swath of buildings on both sides of Girouard, north and south of de Maisonneuve (then called Western) were removed as part of the widening of Girouard - and now the smaller replacement houses are now in the way, 80 years later.
ReplyDeleteI have the simple solution to this mess: do not make deMais 2 ways from Addington back to Decarie Blvd, leave Upper Lachine viaduct the way it is now, put Girouard back to the way it was. Open the new exit to deMais and Addington now for NDG residents who want to use it to drive west on Demais. Hospital goers will be able to use it too and get under the tracks at Girouard with that U turn that was legal before. Make narrow Crowley one way to the hospital from Upper Lachine rather than a two way mess. The crowded 90 and 104 buses keep using Upper Lachine like now.
ReplyDelete