“It’s a mess!” : Henri-Bourassa traders out of breath due to construction sites

Road obstructions, blocking of their delivery space, loss of parking and customers… The merchants of rue Henri-Bourassa, bogged down in the Réseau Express Vélo construction site, are fed up with having to endure work that they consider poorly planned by the municipality.

Orange cones are omnipresent on Henri-Bourassa Boulevard, in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville sector. Parking spaces on this important artery have become rare, while the Réseau Express Vélo construction site is in full swing. This is a very real problem for traders in the area, who denounce the Plante administration’s lack of listening to their ordeal.

“It’s been several times that I have found a vehicle belonging to construction site employees in my area reserved for deliveries. We get loads of glass weighing thousands of pounds here. Now that I no longer have a parking space in front of my business, we’re not going to ask suppliers to travel on foot! », denounces Martine Grisé, owner of Vitrerie St-André at the microphone of Benoit Dutrizac on QUB radio.

Like most of the other traders interviewed by QUB radio during their visit, Ms. Grisé implored the district administration not to establish a lane reserved for buses outside peak hours, in order to leave parking spaces parking available for customers. Unfortunately, this request went unheeded.

“It’s so poorly thought out. They knew what they were going to do and they never took our opinion into account, but we are the ones who pay taxes. During this time, I have lost 25% of my income since the work began,” laments Luis Salan, owner of the restaurant L’Œuforie Matinale.

This drop in revenue, combined with an increase in municipal taxes this year, forced the restaurateur to put two of his employees on unemployment, in addition to pushing him to abandon his Quebec suppliers. Mr. Salan now has to shop at Costco, unable to find a more affordable option.

Customers also exhausted

Retailers are not the only ones frustrated by the situation. During QUB Radio’s visit to the Italian sandwich shop Tonino’s, an Uber Eats driver burst into the establishment, railing against the work.

“It’s really miserable, nothing has been planned for Uber drivers, and the police don’t care if we park for a second to get food. We end up receiving fines for doing our job,” denounces the driver, who preferred to remain anonymous to avoid professional repercussions.

Tonino’s owner Anthony Boxell is equally dejected. His restaurant having opened barely a month before work began on the boulevard, he did not expect such disruptions in the first year of his activity. He particularly criticizes the city for a lack of support and communication, since no municipal employee came to take the pulse of the merchants.

For him, as for many others, all that remains is to hope that the work does not exceed the spring 2025 deadline.