By Chelsey St-Pierre
The Suburban

Île-Bizard mayor Doug Hurley is concerned about the effects of the ongoing work on the Jacques-Bizard bridge with important events coming up, such as the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) World Cup slated to take place at The Royal Montreal Gold Club this September. Elected in December 2023, Hurley, who has been advocating for the bridge reparations to take place since 2013, immediately made this a priority upon his election.

Hurley has personally tended to many of the issues related to bridge traffic, big or small, and says that the organization related to the work being done is already flawed and he fears that with the upcoming PGA Tour coming to town that it will only exacerbate the issues. At one point, Hurley advocated to have cement Jersey barriers moved as they were unnecessarily reducing traffic lanes. Hurley has also stood on the four corners at the foot of the bridge to help direct traffic as there is a shortage of volunteer cadet officers to conduct the traffic flow.

“Right now we have 18,000 bridge users per day, while during the PGA tournament, we are expecting 30,000 per day for six days in September,” Hurley told The Suburban.

Hurley prepared a plan of action but finds himself forced to negotiate at every turn. “We want to ban street parking, except for residents during the PGA event. We want to reserve a single lane for shuttle buses which should be stationed near available parking lots off-island. The Montreal police wants to issue passes instead, which is a much more complicated process,” Hurley explained. “In terms of public security, Montreal wanted to use ours (Île-Bizard) public security, and I said fine but they will pay the bill. Montreal refused to compensate our small business owners stating that the event is not taking place in front of their business. If anyone came here to see, it is clear that the current traffic caused by the bridge is detrimental already and that nearly doubling that flow as a result of the event will affect them immensely and for six days.” n