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    Stade Olympique et site adjacent - Discussion générale

    dans Lieux de culture, sport et divertissement

    Posté(e)

    Game changer enlivens Big O

    David Heurtel says he can ‘turn this place around’

     

    MONTREAL — David Heurtel knows the Olympic Stadium has a big PR problem.

     

    After the president of the Parc Olympique had spent about an hour telling me about all the cool things going on in and around the Olympic Stadium these days, I figured the time had come to break the bad news to him.

     

    “You know that most people have a pretty negative perception of the Big O,” I said, playing my preferred role of party-pooper/stick-in-the-mud.

     

    To his credit, Heurtel didn’t flinch. He did pause, but he was soon back into the conversation with as much enthusiasm as ever.

     

    “It is a monumental challenge,” Heurtel said, referring to the job of revitalizing the Olympic Park, a project he’s been working on since taking over the top job at the Big O in the spring of 2011.

     

    “When I was approached for the job, I thought long and hard about it,” Heurtel said.

     

    A lot of his close friends and advisers told him he’d be nuts to take the job.

     

    “The reason I wanted to take it was because it was such a challenge,” Heurtel said. “Also because I thought it was important and I still think it’s important for Montreal. We need to try to turn this place around. We can’t just throw in the towel and talk about the past, and say, ‘There’s no hope.’ This place has drawn more than 100 million people since 1976. Now it’s not perfect. It’s very difficult. This is a very difficult structure. But at the same time, if we bring in the cultural communities, the sporting communities of Montreal, and bring in a new generation of people to revitalize this place, I think we can really move forward.”

     

    Heurtel has a huge amount of experience as a cultural manager. He’s done three separate stints in senior positions at the Just for Laughs organization, was deputy director of the Seattle Centre, an arts centre, from 2005 to 2007, and he had just started as head of corporate affairs at the Habs-owned concert giant Evenko in the spring of 2011 when he received an offer he couldn’t refuse — to take over and revamp the Parc Olympique.

     

    Though most of us didn’t notice, the fruits of Heurtel’s hard work began to pay off in the summer, with an ambitious program of cultural fare on the concrete esplanade surrounding the strange-looking space-ship-like stadium. Kent Nagano and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal pulled in 20,000 fans for a free concert in August, Greenland Productions held the first edition of the Experience Montreal music fest, there was a circus festival, Latin dancing, and a weekly festival of local food-selling trucks (like Grumman78). In total, there were 77 events from 26 different promoters, which drew around 100,000 people.

     

    The winter activities kick off Dec. 15 with an event built around the lighting and decorating of a giant Christmas tree on the esplanade, and will continue with mini-tennis on snow for kids, skating on ice threading its way across the esplanade, and four of the mobile restaurants will be back on the first Saturday of each month to dole out food and drink to those enjoying the winter activities.

     

    The Olympic Park is in the midst of a three-year renovation program, with $7 million going to revamping the esplanade area and another $5 million to spruce up the Olympic Tower, including new state-of-the-art outdoor lighting.

     

    The funny thing is that the esplanade has hardly been used since it was the site of some of the medal ceremonies at the 1976 Olympic Games. It’s hopping with action, but it’s the stadium that remains a major problem. The roof collapsed in 1999 and the Parc Olympique has been trying to have it replaced ever since. Because of the roof issues, the stadium can’t host many events in the winter. As soon as there’s any snow accumulation on the roof, all events have to be cancelled. Ultimately it will be up to the provincial government to okay any plan to acquire a new roof.

     

    The stadium also hasn’t served as the regular home-base for a local sports team since the Expos left town in 2004.

     

    There are events in the stadium in the three other seasons, including the occasional Impact and Alouettes games, trade shows, and it even hosted a major concert in September, with Marc Anthony playing in a smaller configuration of the stadium designed to accommodate 15,000 people. About 11,000 fans turned up for the concert. That success has Heurtel hoping to present other shows for crowds of between 10,000 and 35,000.

     

    Heurtel, a francophone who grew up in Town of Mount Royal, is well aware that many anglos have never warmed to the Big O, never liking the notion of a stadium so far east on the island. But he thinks the time is right to change those perceptions.

     

    “There’s been an image problem with the Olympic Park. So we’re trying to give reasons for people to come here. We want to change the conversation. We want to talk about it as an urban park rather than just a stadium.”

     

    bkelly@montrealgazette.com

     

    Twitter: @brendanshowbiz

     

     

    http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Game+changer+enlivens+Olympic+Stadium+David+Heurtel+says/7663655/story.html

    Autoroute 30 - Discussion générale

    dans Infrastructures

    Posté(e)

     

    MONTREAL—For decades, impatient Montrealers have waited as piecemeal construction has slowly pushed a beltway around the island of Montreal. In five weeks, the final stretch of Highway 30 will be completed.

     

    For commuters and truckers, the beltway will mean a faster route through Quebec by avoiding the congested city of Montreal. On-island drivers could also see less traffic. The company building the last section of Highway 30 promises the road will open before Christmas.

     

    A public-private partnership, the final section is nearly 35 kilometres long with a major interchange, a tunnel and two bridges which combined are longer than the Champlain Bridge.

     

    With no alternative around Montreal, the decades-old project has led to frustrated truckers like Barry Buntin, who say that nothing is worse than sitting in Quebec’s traffic.

     

    “Just stop-and-go traffic all the time, construction,” said Buntin, anger clear in the Ontarian’s voice. “You're paid by the mile, you're not paid by the hour. If you're sitting in traffic, you're just sittin’ there losing money. To make money you gotta be puttin' the miles in.”

     

    Denis Leonard, the spokesman for the Nouvelle Autoroute 30 consortium, said the Dec. 15 opening date is set in stone.

     

    First conceived in the 60s, the beltway plan was advanced only a kilometre or two per decade. Montreal’s city administrators weren’t keen on the idea of traffic avoiding the island.

     

    “I've always said that was very short-sighted. We were probably one of the only, if not the only major North American city, without beltways, which are now absolutely necessary,” said traffic expert Rick Leckner.

     

    The change only came with the 1990 Oka Crisis, which drove home the point that a beltway was needed to take the strain of the island’s limited number of ageing connections.

     

    “That showed how, unfortunately, we can be held hostage and I use that in every sense of the word,” said Leckner.

     

    According to Buntin, the new highway will be a dream come true, and he expects Montreal’s traffic woes will improve.

     

    “It will be better for us and on the Metropolitan it will be much better. Because all the guys are there in the morning, there are lines of trucks there in the morning,” said Buntin.

     

    Most of Highway 30 will be free of tolls, but drivers who get on or off at the newest section in Vaudreuil-Dorion will have to pay, for truckers the price will start at $1 per axel. The money will be used to maintain the highway and generate a profit for the private company that built the road.

     

    With construction starting on the Turcot interchange and the Champlain bridge, the timing couldn’t be better to keep some traffic off island.

     

    “The design for the traffic is planned for the next 30 years, so it will be a highway that will not jam and keep it easy to bypass Montreal,” said Leonard.

     

    Read more: http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/decades-in-the-making-montreal-s-beltway-will-be-finished-in-weeks-1.1029402#ixzz2BbTqBLs5'>http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/decades-in-the-making-montreal-s-beltway-will-be-finished-in-weeks-1.1029402#ixzz2BbTqBLs5

     

    http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/decades-in-the-making-montreal-s-beltway-will-be-finished-in-weeks-1.1029402

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