{"id":9510,"date":"2011-03-07T06:34:53","date_gmt":"2011-03-07T11:34:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingmontreal.ca\/?p=9510"},"modified":"2013-01-21T11:21:38","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T16:21:38","slug":"a-highway-waiting-to-happen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2011\/03\/07\/a-highway-waiting-to-happen\/","title":{"rendered":"A Highway Waiting to Happen"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"highway<\/a><\/p>\n

A thick white stripe across the Eastern side of Laval marks the embryo of autoroute 25. It’s come quite a way since Spring 2009<\/a>. After 3 years of construction (and 3 more of controversy), the bridge and highway are due to be completed in May 2011.<\/p>\n

Look at all that farmland and woodland in Laval just waiting to be developed. Some, but not all of it will be protected by agricultural zoning, at least for now (Laval zoning map<\/a>). The provincial Commission de la protection des terresagricoles du Qu\u00e9bec<\/em> , or CPTAQ, has been known to make exceptions readily enough<\/a>, and municipalities are pushing for direct jurisdiction over agricultural dezoning.<\/p>\n

The debate over the “pont de la 25” was my first experience with highway politics in Quebec.<\/p>\n

Press releases were flying<\/a> around \u00c9quiterre’s sustainable transportation office when I interned there in 2006. The City of Montreal came out against the project, prioritizing new commuter trains before additional bridge-building, and for a while it seemed to herald a hopeful new era of enlightened transportation planning. But it didn’t reach to the provincial offices: the MTQ went ahead and tweaked the new urban plan to fit their highway. Then they arguably botched the BAPE process, holding public consultations before the complete plans for the bridge and the environmental impact assessment were made public. Equiterre, Greenpeace and the Comit\u00e9 R\u00e9gional took the case to the Quebec Superior Court,<\/a> but Charest gave the go-ahead to start construction before the case was even seen in court.<\/p>\n

For me, it was an initiation to unsustainable, undemocratic, and arguably unnecessary transportation infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Montreal’s First Bridge Toll<\/strong><\/p>\n

Five years ago it seemed pretty silly to build a pricey bridge between agricultural Laval and East-end Montreal, two areas with little demand for the transportation of either goods or people between them.<\/p>\n

I guess I was naive because apparently folks are falling all over themselves to buy credits for the new bridge toll, months before the highway is even scheduled to open (I’d be curious to see a study on where those folks live and work). La Presse columnist Fran\u00e7ois Cardinal points out<\/a> that drivers are evidentally prepared to shell out for the added value of less jammed highways (but not, he emphasizes, to use an existing and unimproved service). Of course it won’t be long before added sprawl crops up along this route, and it goes from being new-and-improved to\u00a0 habitual and increasingly congested.<\/p>\n

Montreal’s first bridge toll<\/span> only present-day toll bridge won’t feature any toll-booths, rather users will have their license plates photographed and be billed either to their line account or by mail (not sure how this will work with rentals or carshares). It will cost between $1.80 and $2.40 to cross the bridge. However, those who don’t have an account with the private company that runs the tolls will get slapped with an extra $5 administrative fee for each crossing.\u00a0 The a25’s extensive FAQ about the toll<\/a> does not explain how the collected funds will be used and they did not reply to my inquiry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A thick white stripe across the Eastern side of Laval marks the embryo of autoroute 25. It’s come quite a way since Spring 2009. After 3 years of construction (and 3 more of controversy), the bridge and highway are due to be completed in May 2011. Look at all that farmland and woodland in LavalContinue reading “A Highway Waiting to Happen”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5022,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[213,7839],"tags":[91,6067,6069,5983,265,4115,92,125,190,292,3564,6066,830,166,6068,302],"class_list":["post-9510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-infrastructure","category-neighbourhoods","tag-bridges-and-spans","tag-enlightened-transportation","tag-francois-cardinal","tag-greenpeace","tag-la-presse","tag-la-presse-columnist","tag-laval","tag-montreal","tag-mtq","tag-quebec","tag-quebec-superior-court","tag-sustainable-transportation-office","tag-transportation-2","tag-transportation","tag-unnecessary-transportation-infrastructure","tag-usd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA Highway Waiting to Happen - Spacing Montreal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2011\/03\/07\/a-highway-waiting-to-happen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Highway Waiting to Happen - Spacing Montreal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A thick white stripe across the Eastern side of Laval marks the embryo of autoroute 25. 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