Quartier Concordia

[JFrosty]

chez toi? ça serait un bon début?

 

Je pense pas avoir assez de place. J'imagine que ta maison est pas mal plus grande que mon appartement Malek.

[FFJ-MTL]

Si il y a tellement de hors sujet, c'est parce qu'il n y a quasiment pas de quoi parler ces temps ci

[Habsfan]

Si il y a tellement de hors sujet, c'est parce qu'il n y a quasiment pas de quoi parlé ces temps ci

 

 

Excactement!! Il n'y a pas grand chose qui se passe à Montréal depuis quelques mois et ça parait!

[Kotar]

The Quartier Concordia is expanding north, maybe.....

 

A plan to narrow Mackay St. this summer quietly being implemented by the Ville Marie borough and Concordia University appears to have hit a major roadblock with many area residents and merchants.

 

According to a Ville Marie borough document approved April 7, the project would narrow Mackay this summer to a single lane from three-car-widths wide

 

http://www.montrealgazette.com/Outcry+over+plan+narrow+Mackay/1526846/story.html

[MTLskyline]

Hmm, as much as I empathize with the locals losing parking, Concordia's downtown campus badly needs some sort of green space. Usually adding a lot of "green space" downtown is not my top concern, but there are virtually no parks whatsoever in this area, the nearest being what, Cabot Square or Mount Royal? I believe most of the row houses on MacKay between Sherbrooke and De Maisonneuve are Concordia owned anyway?

 

I can't believe how NIMBYish these Port-Royal people are. They complained when the George Simpson tower was built - which came out to be what, about a third the size of their building? Now they're complaining that they have one less shortcut, a few less parking spaces (there's no underground parking in the Port Royal??), and that university students will make noise. Don't live downtown if you can't handle noise!

[Habsfan]

I believe most of the row houses on MacKay between Sherbrooke and De Maisonneuve are Concordia owned anyway?

 

Yes they are!

[ErickMontreal]

Montreal's worst construction zone: concordia a mess for pedestrians, bikes, cars

 

 

By Andy Riga 04-30-2009 Metropolitan News

 

Students and staff pour out of Concordia University buildings, scattering onto the road, the bike path and the sidewalk, or heading for a shabby-looking make-shift enclosure built of plywood and 2-by-4s.

 

Among those zooming by the pedestrians are cyclists pedaling down a busy east-west downtown bike path that suddenly narrows to half its width; for a two-block stretch, the bikes must share the path with other bikes coming straight for them, as well as pedestrians and a massive yellow construction excavator.

 

Nearby, cars inch along, their three-lane road narrowed to just one lane for two blocks that are dotted with a confusing array of traffic signs; pedestrians and cyclists zigzag through the cars and two construction-zone flaggers direct traffic, at some points stopping motorists so cyclists can make their way around the excavator.

 

Welcome to Concordia's Sir George Williams campus -- more precisely de Maisonneuve Blvd., between Bishop and Guy Sts. The choatic scene, witnessed by thousands of Montrealers daily, has been replayed every weekday for weeks -- pedestrians, cyclists, motorists, construction workers and heavy machinery in very close proximity.

 

It wins the prize for worst construction zone in a city that has some doozies. (Or maybe you know of a worse one? Email me by using the link to the right.)

 

I cycled into the mess on Monday for the first time, even though I had heard about the situation (a report by CBC Daybreak's Shawn Apel is here; a photo he took is here) and read about it (in this posting on On Two Wheels, Kelly Ebbels' Gazette biking blog),

 

Yesterday, I went back on foot to take a closer look and ask questions about what's going on. Gazette photographer (and fellow blogger) Allen McInnis followed, snapping the vivid pictures of the construction zone you see on this page.

 

Concordia, which has built two major new buildings in the area, is now working on a 120-metre, $5-million underground tunnel that will connect its de Maisonneuve buildings to the Guy-Concordia métro station a block away, at Guy and de Maisonneuve. Above the tunnel is Place Bethune, part of Quartier Concordia, a new hub that the university says will transform the downtown campus "from a collection of scattered buildings into a welcoming and cohesive urban campus "

 

The tunnel work is not going to end any time soon - it isn't expected to be completed until the fall.

 

Since it's a Concordia construction site, the university is responsible for safety and security on the street, sidewalk and bike path, city of Montreal spokesperson Sylvie Laflamme told me.

 

Moving around the area is "awkward" but Concordia considers the area safe for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists, according to Chris Mota, the university's director of media relations.

 

She said Concordia had the wooden pedestrian enclosure installed on Monday. About six metres long and two metres wide, it allows pedestrians walking on Mackay to cross part of de Maisonneuve without fear of being hit by cars negotiating the narrow single lane still open on Mackay at that corner.

 

The construction company building the tunnel, Garnier Construction Ltd., also has workers with red flags helping people move around on foot and on wheels, Mota said. Concordia's keeping an eye on the situation and will act if other measures have to be taken, she added.

 

So what's the deal with the tunnel and who's paying for it?

 

It'll keep students and staff warm and cozy during the winter but Mota says the university has other reasons for building it. The tunnel will promote public transit and make the area more secure, with fewer Concordia people above ground interacting with car and bike traffic, she said.

 

"There is so much pedestrian and vehicular traffic in the area that crossing the streets is becoming problematic," Mota said. "The tunnel will go a long way to decreasing the pedestrian traffic at street level."

 

The tunnel will also be a valuable new addition to Montreal's undergound city, making it possible to walk almost all the way from the Guy-Concordia métro to Sherbrooke and Bishop Sts., Mota noted.

 

Two-thirds of the $5-million tunnel budget comes from federal and provincial infrastructure funding; Concordia is paying the rest, Mota said.

 

Here's the makeshift tunnel installed on Monday (notice the no-pedestrian sign in front of it and the fact that pedestrians emerge from the tunnel into the bike path):

 

 

Here's the tunnel under construction. To the right is the bike path (when it's not blocked by that giant yellow excavator), plus one lane for cars and trucks:

 

 

Here's what those construction workers are doing down there:

 

 

Here's the view from Mackay, toward Bishop:

 

 

This image shows part of the area will look like once Quartier Concordia is completed :

 

http://communities.canada.com/montrealgazette/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Components.UserFiles/00.00.00.73.09/Picture-2.png

 

http://communities.canada.com/montrealgazette/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Components.UserFiles/00.00.00.73.09/concordia_2D00_underground_2D00_map.JPG

[Habsfan]

Some people just like to complain for no reason. When it'll all be done, i'm willing to bet that this same reporter will say WOW what nice downtown campus...

[Atze]

Le bordel comme d'habitude dans ce coin...

 

 

[acpnc]

Ben voyons, on ne fait pas d'omelette sans casser des oeufs!!! L'objectif n'est pas de creuser des trous et de créer de la congestion, mais bien de construire un tunnel qui reliera la partie ouest du Campus Concordia au reste de l'ensemble.

 

Une fois le projet terminé (dans quelques mois) on aura vite oublié les inconvénients actuels en profitant d'un bel aménagement urbain pour de nombreuses années.

 

Les gens sans vision aiment se plaindre en ne voyant pas plus loin que leur petit bien-être personnel et immédiat, des nymbies en puissance...