Montreal City Weblog

Kate 08:56 on 2026-04-24 Permalink Reply  

• jeather 10:21 on 2026-04-24 Permalink

  Has there been a related update in Cavendish? I’ve been told that the initial agreement required opening up Cavendish before they were allowed to build residentially.

• dhomas 12:21 on 2026-04-24 Permalink

  I remember reading about the Blue Bonnets development and Cavendish extension. Somehow, they were lumped together at the time. But I don’t really see why the Cavendish extension should be a prerequisite to building out the Blue Bonnets site. It seems to help Cote-St-Luc more than any future residents of the Blue Bonnets site.

• jeather 12:37 on 2026-04-24 Permalink

  I think it had to do with reducing traffic on Decarie. We know that extra highways doesn’t reduce traffic, but I think that was the argument when they were tied together.

• Kevin 12:41 on 2026-04-24 Permalink

  The Cavendish connection is required because the Jean-Talon/Decarie intersection operates at somewhere around 400% capacity.

  The rail lines force all traffic between Highway 13 and L’Acadie-Park to funnel through Decarie.

  The idea is that Cavendish would allow heavy trucks to make more than one trip per day.

• jeather 12:42 on 2026-04-24 Permalink

  Ok I searched there’s a petition that says:
  WHEREAS, in 2017, the Quebec government transferred the Hippodrome lands to Ville de Montréal for $1, in order to build housing on the following condition: Art. 5.2.3 The Cavendish-Cavendish link is a road that falls under its [Montréal’s] responsibility, and it undertakes to include it in the agglomeration’s transportation plan and its three-year capital program;

  Fun detail is that Martinez Ferrara was pro opening up Cavendish when Projet stopped moving forward on that, so I’m looking forward to all the angry responses from supporters when they also don’t do it.
  https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/federal-government-invests-hippodrome-housing-2026-1.7633967

• Chris 17:31 on 2026-04-24 Permalink

  > The Cavendish connection is required because the Jean-Talon/Decarie intersection operates at somewhere around 400% capacity.

  and it will go down for a little while, then be right back up at 400% before you know it.

• Kevin 18:46 on 2026-04-24 Permalink

  There is induced demand, latent demand, transportation changes caused by improved individual economic situations, and then there are poorly designed roads.

  The Decarie-Jean Talon interchange is a chokepoint because of the train yards, as anyone can see by looking at a map. That is aggravated because it’s a region with three competing jurisdictions, and choices made by the city of Montreal interfere with choices made by the province. It’s not helped by choices made by TMR.

  Things can be built better, as we’ve seen with Turcot: Decarie south to the Ville Marie used to have bumper to bumper traffic all the way back to Queen Mary but that was eliminated by doubling the lanes on the ramp going to downtown.

  Decarie and Jean-Talon needs another big change. (I’d go with moving the northbound on and off ramps to eliminate the criss-cross of people trying to turn right on Jean-Talon blocking people trying to get on the highway, for starters. Until then a Jersey barrier isolating the righhand lane on Decarie Blvd. from under the tracks to Jean-Talon would be awesome!)

  But the first thing is to bite the bullet and spend hundreds of millions on an unsexy connection so that people in Montreal West, NDG, Hampstead and CSL can go north without being forced onto Decarie, and so big trucks can make the round trips from their factories to Blue Bonnets multiple times a day without being stuck in the 24/7 jam that is the Decarie Circle.

  Then the city can spend an equal amount of money on building a sewage system, and then build houses and even a tramway to Namur metro if they so desire.

  But we’ve been through 4 mayors since everyone was told that nothing happens without Cavendish. Nothing else is an option. Quit pretending something else can happen.