The infrastructure issues underpinning Sexy béton play out concretely this year in the growing debate about redeveloping Montreal’s Turcot Interchange. At stake is what the future of our city looks like. Groups of residents in the south-west, from neighbourhoods like Saint-Henri, Côte Saint Paul, and the Village des Tanneries, have raised awareness of their public safety concerns. Mobilisation Turcot is one group that is working hard to give citizens more of a say over public policy.
The issues are complex – encompassing engineering, public health, urban planning, and politics – but the potential impacts are very real. The Turcot – a maze of access roads, overpasses and intersections uniting highways 20, 15, and 720 – is one of the most heavily monitored pieces of infrastructure in Québec. Its significant elevation above the ground means any substantial failure of its structural integrity would be catastrophic. But redeveloping it also potentially means an enormous disturbance to the surrounding neighbourhoods.
The future of the Turcot symbolizes what is at stake for all of Montreal’s infrastructure and transportation system – and indeed, those of cities North America-wide. Is the car going to continue to be the dominant form of transport for the next 50 years as it was for the last 50?
Many of these issues are admirably presented in a new book called Montreal at the Crossroads, co-edited by Pierre Gauthier, Jason Prince and Jochen Jaeger. Here’s the book description from the Concordia bookstore website :
“Transportation engineers and political leaders are about to make decisions that will affect Montreal for generations to come. ln cities across North America, car-era infrastructure such as elevated highways are crumbling. Montreal has its Turcot Interchange: a spectacular example. As the urgency of the situation calls for immediate measures, what is best to do? What principles should guide our actions? The environmental crisis obliges cities to think about the environmental costs of car-dependency. Now is the time to weigh also the social, cultural and economic costs of unrestrained auto- mobility. The Montreal debates are relevant for all cities that must decide if their future is still to be dictated by the car. This book includes contributions in both French and English.”
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