Bell employees arriving in five months

Beginning in September, thousands of workers will be making their way towards this part of the island. Public transport users will be able to use the new bus route – bus # 480 of the STM (refer to another article on this subject) arriving from downtown. These busses will be able to accommodate several commuters who would have used either the suburban trains or the metro.

There will be a certain number of Bell employees who will be driving their cars to their new headquarters; measures must evidently be taken so additional cars will not impact the traffic situation in the Place du Commerce area. Given that it is impossible to get to the northern tip of the island without passing René Lévesque Boulevard, a significant number of residents are worried about the additional congestion to the already existing traffic problem.

Even if there are barely some twenty weeks left before the opening of the new building, Borough officials are confident that the re-structuring work can be completed before the arrival of new workers. In the next few days, work will begin on interchange ramp 21 enabling vehicles coming via highway 15 south to gain direct access to the Pointe-Nord area. This new ramp will form a loop that will pass beneath Champlain Bridge without blocking the rotary circle at the island’s present point of entry. This ramp will accommodate a significant number of vehicles - drivers coming via the Bonaventure Expressway will be directed towards the L'Île-des-Sœurs Bridge so they can go to the northern point of L’île des Sœurs.

This means that only those vehicles coming from Champlain Bridge present a risk of blocking the road network in the Place du Commerce area. According to the Borough, however, that won’t happen because the new road work will let drivers access the northern tip without having to make a detour via the island’s present point of entry. These road works have priority and should therefore be completed in the summer.

As our readers will notice, this article is just an overview of measures that are being planned. In a few weeks, however, the Borough will be able to announce to the public the timetable for the different works that should lead to the completion of the island’s entry and exit points. It will be a report that Le Magazinecan’t wait to share with its readers.