The Sainte-Catherine Street construction site is taking a winter break, just in time for holiday shopping. And as all of the underground infrastructure has been completed, the City expects “less disruptive” work next year.
Posted at 12:06 p.m.
“All the heaviest work has been completed. What remains to be done above all is completion, therefore finishing and adjustments,” explained the administrative spokesperson for the Montreal administration, Philippe Sabourin, on Friday, presenting an assessment of the situation.
As of Friday evening, the construction site of phase 2 of rue Sainte-Catherine, active between the Peel and Mansfield axes, will be immobilized. The City will reopen automobile traffic on Metcalfe and Peel streets, but only starting Monday, to give merchants some time to prepare for the transition. Many of them want to wash their windows first.
Mansfield Street will remain blocked. As for the Sainte-Catherine section, work will resume in April 2025 until the following October. But as the work is advanced, the experience is likely to be much more pleasant, assures Philippe Sabourin.
“Everything that involves waterworks, sewers, access wells and gas lines is done. We have completely new underground infrastructures and in addition, we already have the new street furniture, the infrastructures are done, we have planted 35 trees, in short it is quite well advanced,” he notes.
“People who are going to go to Sainte-Catherine in 2025 will no longer have fences on either side of the street, except perhaps when we do paving,” adds the spokesperson. He specifies that the interventions carried out next year will generally be carried out on shorter sections.
In the short term, the commercial artery and other local streets will be cleared for the weekend of the Santa Claus Parade, scheduled for November 23 in the city center. The fences will all be dismantled and all obstacles lifted for this day, says Montreal, which expects thousands of people there.
A referendum demanded
The official opposition at city hall, for its part, called for a referendum on Thursday on the pedestrianization project for Sainte-Catherine Street. The Press revealed at the beginning of November that the City wishes to completely and permanently pedestrianize four important sections of the commercial axis.
Ensemble Montréal is, however, concerned about “the lack of consultation and transparency” around this project. For the moment, only a confidential document, prepared in spring 2024 by the City’s Urban Planning and Mobility Department, has been mentioned in our pages.
Councilor Julien Hénault-Ratelle, supported by independent councilor Serge Sasseville, is therefore asking that a referendum be held on the issue, “which could be held during the next municipal elections to encourage broad participation,” they say.
“Such a project will have major consequences for our merchants and residents, in addition to having effects on the mobility of the entire city. Downtown Montreal is one of the largest event hubs in Canada and it is crucial that all Montreal citizens can have their say on this issue,” indicated Mr. Hénault-Ratelle.
