Extend De Salaberry, Dollard mayor says

BY ANDY BLATCHFORD



In its drive to establish an industrial park near Highway 13, Pierrefonds/Roxboro reignited an old debate on whether to extend De Salaberry Boulevard.

On Nov. 2, Montreal’s agglomeration council passed a notice of motion to borrow $1.5 million to pave a 300-metre road stretching east of the highway. The street will serve new industrial condominiums, according to city councillor Christian Dubois.

The road, which will run from west to east between Gouin and Henri Bourassa boulevards, is a small section of a dormant plan to extend De Salaberry from Dollard des Ormeaux to St. Laurent.

The full link proposal, which called for designated bus lanes leading to Thimens Boulevard and then Cote Vertu Métro station, would have cut through Bois de Liesse Nature Park.

On the books for decades, the connection was taken out of the West Island’s transportation plan last year, Dollard Mayor Ed Janiszewski said.

But Pierrefonds/Roxboro’s industrial park project still raises concern among local environmentalists, who have long opposed the extension.

This plan “places a lot of pressure to renew talk about that road,� Green Coalition vice-president David Fletcher said of the De Salaberry expansion. “If they’re putting an industrial park there, that’s again more reason for us to be vigilant.�

He said the park will add to traffic congestion on nearby Gouin, which could spark the full extension’s realization.

Paving through the nature park would cut the forest in half and destroy its ecological integrity, he said.

“It’s not just a few trees, it’s a sizable corridor that has to go through there,� Fletcher said.

Bus lanes would take cars off the roads, Fletcher said, but Montreal should consider other options, including an electric light-rail service along the Doney Spur.

The Doney railway starts east of St. John’s Boulevard and runs parallel to Highway 40. It connects with Montreal/Deux Montagnes commuter line west of the Bois Franc station.

“We’ve got the rail bed there, we just can’t get the action that’s needed to do the right thing,� he said.

However, Janiszewski said as rush-hour traffic routinely ties up arteries in the northern section of the West Island, commuters are looking for another way out.

“If you can get to the Métro in 20 minutes, which you could with the proper short-cut route, it would make a heck of a difference to transportation on the north side of the Trans-Canada (Highway),� he told The Chronicle. “Right now it takes an hour to get to the Cote Vertu Métro (station).�

“St. Laurent doesn’t care if we have access to the Métro,� he said. “They have it and they’re happy with that and they prefer not to have any traffic coming through.�

A bus route through Bois de Liesse would help the local environment, he said.

“You’re saving a few trees and you’re just increasing air pollution by mega per cent,� he said. “You have to realize there’s a problem of public transport to reduce traffic congestion and air pollution.

“You can always plant more trees, but you can’t replace lung cancer.�

According to a summary of the Pierrefonds/Roxboro plan, Montreal is leaving the door open for a potential link from the industrial park to Thimens Boulevard in St. Laurent.

However, Dubois doubts the De Salaberry extension will be back on the table.

“We have a hell of a green coalition in this part of the world and there’s nobody that’s ever going to go through Bois de Liesse,� he said. “That will never happen.�