Press release
Société du Havre de Montréal undertakes final studies for
the redevelopment of the Bonaventure Expressway
Montréal, August 30, 2007 Isabelle Hudon, chair of the Board of Directors of Société du Havre de Montréal, is pleased that the Quebec government will be contributing $400,000 to the redevelopment of the Bonaventure Expressway at the gateway of downtown Montréal. The announcement was made today by Raymond Bachand, Minister of Economic Development, Innovation and Export, on behalf of Nathalie Normandeau, Deputy Premier and Minister of Municipal Affairs and Regions, in the company of Montréal Mayor Gérald Tremblay.
As a result of the Société du Havre's decision to follow a strict planning process, Montréal will ultimately have a state-of-the-art gateway to the city that will also attract investment in this new link between downtown and the St. Lawrence River. Thanks to the Quebec government's participation, we can now step up the pace and complete a vital step before preparing the plans and specifications to redevelop the section of the Bonaventure Expressway that leads to the downtown core, said the Board chair of Société du Havre de Montréal and president and CEO of the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal, Isabelle Hudon.
The infrastructure and road works will begin after this pre-project phase and should be completed in three years, meaning Montréal will have a prestigious new gateway in 2012.
Thanks to our discipline and ambition, we have reached the point where we can now move ahead to this next key phase before the work begins. This move also confirms our collective choice to invest $90 million in this major project rather than spend $60 million to maintain an aging infrastructure, added Ms. Hudon.
It will be recalled that last April, the Société du Havre de Montréal announced that six feasibility studies all concluded the relevance of transforming the Bonaventure Expressway into a major urban boulevard at the gateway of the downtown core. In light of this conclusion, Mayor Gérald Tremblay immediately launched the crucial pre-project phase, which involved analyses of construction costs, the demolition of existing structures, the improvement of public lands, traffic management, and the optimization of public transit in the Bonaventure corridor.
The Société du Havre de Montréal was founded in the wake of the Montreal Summit in 2002 with the financial support of the three levels of government. Its mandate was to propose the outline of a joint intervention plan, along with an implementation and financing strategy, for the harbourfront and the surrounding area. In spring 2004, it presented its Vision 2025 report a proposal for the future of the harbourfront that has taken another step forward today with the unveiling of a realistic plan.
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Source:
Sylvie Paquette
Coordinator, Media relations
Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal
Tel.: 514 871-4000, ext. 4015
sylvie.paquette@ccmm.qc.ca
For more information on the Société du Havre and the Bonaventure Expressway redevelopment, visit the Société's Web site at www.havremontreal.qc.ca