By Joel Ceausu
The Suburban

Some Snowdon residents can soon expect an invite to a borough information meeting about Bourret’s upcoming transformation into one-way west of Décarie, it’s just not sure when.

As reported in The Suburban, Côte des Neiges-Notre Dame de Grâce borough is making the road one-way eastbound between Clanranald and Décarie. This, a year after installing a two-way bike path and removal of all parking spaces on the north side.

While the borough maintains roadway dimensions are unchanged, maneuverability has been affected, as any resident or regular user of the road can attest. The Suburban learned that some STM employees told residents that bus drivers are frustrated when turning onto the street, which also causes many drivers to swerve towards the bike path or parked cars, or stop altogether when facing oncoming traffic. Last summer a pedestrian was killed after she was struck by a car that veered into the oncoming lane for no known reason, and then back into a parked car before hitting her as she walked in the road.

Snowdon councillor Sonny Moroz asked when the work will actually start. Mayor Gracia Kasoki Katahwa said “it was not possible to start the work this summer,” because of other work in the area, “and making a change of direction at the same time as doing all this work, was going to require a lot of adaptation from residents.”

She said residents will be invited to an information session where they can ask questions about the new configuration before moving forward. “With the end of the work, we can aim for the fall, or end of summer. It won’t be done in the middle of July.” She added it’s important to reach citizens “and it’s never a good time in the middle of summer so we’re going to come back to them there as soon as we can move forward with the end of work in surrounding streets.” That work, notably around Dupuis and Clanranald, has been underway for more than a month, and will last all summer says Moroz, noting it was a 4-month job.

Katahwa suggested that the work may be able to move forward “as the services continue to monitor and evaluate the progress of the work. My priority is that we can move forward at a time when we can talk to the citizens, that they are informed enough in advance to come and give us their comments… I would like it to be done this fall, but it depends on all these factors.” n