The landslide which occurred on Monday on a residential site and which caused the closure of Chemin Saint-Louis “adds another layer” for traders who are already suffering the repercussions of the immense project to reconstruct the head interchanges bridges.
• Also read: Subsidence: closure of Chemin Saint-Louis near Avenue des Hôtels
The land subsidence occurred Monday evening, on the construction site of a building.
Photo Agence QMI, RENÉ LECLERC
“With the work and the congestion that already existed on Chemin Saint-Louis with the construction site at the head of the bridges, we lost a good part of our passing customers in the evening. Now that Chemin Saint-Louis is closed, a customer really has to be determined to get here,” laments Fabrice Roth, the owner of La Piazzetta on Chemin Saint-Louis.
His restaurant had to be evacuated when the subsidence occurred. Mr. Roth was returning from a convention in Montreal when he heard the news from his daughter, who was in charge of the establishment.
The owner of La Piazzetta on Chemin Saint-Louis, Fabrice Roth, was outside when the landslide occurred on the neighboring property. He fears that the new work that this event has generated will further impact the traffic of his restaurant, already affected by the work on the bridgehead interchanges.
Photo VINCENT DESBIENS
“It was panic! My wife and I were completely helpless and knew nothing. Eventually, everyone managed to evacuate and get to safety. Fortunately, there were no deaths or injuries,” he says, visibly relieved.
The City of Quebec says it is “too early” to determine the duration of the closure of Chemin Saint-Louis between avenues des Hôtels and Lavigerie.
“How do we get home?”
A little further from the site of the collapse, Ristorante Michelangelo is virtually empty. Its owner and manager for 51 years, Nicola Cortina, rails against this new construction site which further complicates the task of traders who feel “forgotten”.
“I arrived this morning and the City put barriers in front of the only accessible entrance to my restaurant! How do we get home? It’s not for nothing that there is no one here today,” says the energetic businessman.
On November 12, the City of Quebec placed barriers in front of the only accessible entrance to Ristorante Michelangelo following the subsidence on Chemin Saint-Louis. Nicola Cortina moved them himself to allow his customers to come and eat at the restaurant.
Photo VINCENT DESBIENS
Like him, the chef-owner of Galopin, Mathieu Guérard, is suffering the full brunt of the effects on traffic of the work in the sector. He claims to have lost the majority of his lunchtime customers in addition to having had to reduce his opening hours.
Avenue des Hôtels has been the scene of a huge construction site since 2023. Access to the surrounding businesses is not an easy task.
Photo VINCENT DESBIENS
“We have an entrance which opens directly onto the deck of the Quebec Bridge and which has been closed for months.”
The entrance which gives access to the Le Galopin restaurant from the Quebec Bridge is closed until further notice by the MTMD, which forces customers to make a detour of several minutes.
Photo VINCENT DESBIENS
The interview with The Journal was briefly interrupted by a call from a customer who wondered if the establishment was open and accessible despite the landslide.
“We must have received ten calls like that a day for a year. And that’s people getting information. How many don’t call us and choose not to come to avoid trouble?”
No compensation
The two owners of neighboring restaurants are indignant at not having received any sign of life from the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility (MTMD) since the start of the work and are demanding help to compensate for the financial losses which are “directly attributable to construction.
The new route of Avenue des Hôtels requires the acquisition of a strip of land which belongs to Nicola Cortina. Before the start of the project, he received a visit from the MTMD who informed him of his intention to negotiate an agreement.
The president and CEO of Ristorante Michelangelo, Nicola Cortina, notes that his terrace, which is on the second floor, is constantly dusty from the hundreds of trucks that travel per day on Avenue des Hôtels.
Photo VINCENT DESBIENS
“I was told that there would be an offer on the table and that it would be settled in 2024. We got to November and I haven’t received anything. December is coming quickly…”, he lets it go.
Asked whether it planned to compensate traders affected by the bridgehead project, the MTMD had not responded at the time of writing.
What they said
“When there was work on the 3e Avenue in Limoilou, the traders were compensated. In the city center, it’s the same thing. Here, as it is not a City project, we were not allowed to do absolutely anything.”
– Mathieu Guérard, chef-owner of the restaurant Le Galopin
“We lost more than $1M in turnover in the last year. Meanwhile, I have to pay the same tax bill. The profitability is no longer there and it’s stressful.”
– Nicola Cortina, president and CEO of Ristorante Michelangelo
“We do not yet know the impacts that the landslide will have, but clearly, it is not going to improve.”
– Fabrice Roth, owner of the La Piazzetta restaurant on Chemin Saint-Louis
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