Camillien-Houde Way on Mount Royal will be closed to traffic, Montreal mayor says
'Taking out the asphalt' and 'putting in trees' will cost $90M
Camillien-Houde Way, the road that winds up Montreal's iconic Mount Royal, will be closed to most vehicles, the mayor of Montreal announced Wednesday.
Mayor Valérie Plante presented what she called an "ambitious vision" for the road at a news conference on Wednesday. It will be reserved for pedestrians and cyclists but emergency vehicles will be able to use it when needed, she said.
"We're taking out the asphalt and we're putting in trees," she said.
What is now a winding road with paved shoulders and concrete barriers will become a tree-lined footpath, which Plante said will designed to be accessible to all, running alongside a parallel bike path.
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A new building, like the chalet at the lookout on the south side of the mountain, will be built at the top where Camillien-Houde currently connects to Remembrance Road, Plante said.
Remembrance Road will remain accessible to cars, Plante said, and there will also be more parking on that side, at Beaver Lake and Smith House, to facilitate access to the mountain for families and people with reduced mobility.
"We're going to beautify it, make it safer, more welcoming and we're going to make it shine brighter than it already does," Plante said.
The road has long been a source of conflict between cyclists and motorists. Plante cited the climate crisis and the need for more green infrastructure as well as the safety of cyclists who use Camillien-Houde as key reasons for the redesign.
Cyclists flock to its eastern slope for the challenge of ascending a winding 1.6-kilometre road that climbs 119 metres toward the summit of Mount Royal.
In 2017, a car doing a U-turn struck and killed Clément Ouimet, an 18-year-old competitive cyclist. It prompted the Plante administration to consider changes to the road, including barring motor vehicle access to it.
But the road is also the only way to drive from one side of the mountain to the other. Remembrance Road runs up the west side of the mountain.
Some drivers use Camillien-Houde as a shortcut or as a way to get to the parking lots on the western side of the mountain. Tourists and sightseers also use it to reach the eastern lookout over the city.
WATCH | Here's what Montreal wants to do with Camillen-Houde Way:
Montreal's fire department has expressed concern in the past that a full closure of the road would slow down response times for emergency vehicles responding to calls for help on the mountain or using the mountain road as a shortcut to reach different sectors of the city.
But Chief Richard Liebmann was one of the officials accompanying the mayor as she made her announcement.
Plante said first responders' vehicles, such as squad cars and fire trucks, will be able to take over the bike path on Camillien-Houde in an emergency.
Liebman said the details of how emergency vehicles would share the road with cyclists are still being ironed out.
"It's not just fire trucks, but ambulances, police cars and maintenance vehicles, even, because these roads will have to be maintained," he said. "The security aspect, we're working on it … to make sure everything will be safe and secure for cyclists."
Steven Laperrière, the general manager of RAPLIQ, a group that advocates for disabled people, said he was happy the city was making things "greener," but upset that the decisions had been made without input from people with disabilities.
"It's nice to say there's a [lookout] that's accessible but if there's no para-transit, how are you going to get there? You're not going to climb with your wheelchair over the top of the mountain," he said.
"There have to be other possibilities that include adapted transport and from what I've heard and seen so far, it's not there."
Environmental groups as well as pedestrian and cycling advocacy groups issued declarations in support of the city's decision.
Jean-François Rheault, the president and director-general of Vélo Québec, said his organization is "rejoicing."
"By eliminating the Camillien-Houde highway, we can reunite sectors of Mount Royal Park that are currently landlocked. All this while improving user-friendliness for pedestrians and cyclists," he said in a statement.
Emmanuel Rondia, the director of the Conseil régional de l'environnement de Montréal, an environmental group, said he welcomed the news that Camilien-Houde would be closed to vehicles.
"We waited for this for a long time," he said. "The mountain will no longer be used as a highway or a shortcut for some drivers, it's becoming really a real park with an accessible road for above all active mobility."
But city hall opposition party leader Aref Salem called the administration out Wednesday for "turning its back on the consultations in which more than 10,000 Montrealers participated."
The mayor's party "is not solving a safety issue," he said in a social media statement. "(It's) creating new ones by shifting traffic to the surrounding neighbourhoods."
Construction on the redevelopment of Camillien-Houde will begin in 2025 and fully wrap up in 2029, but work on the roadway itself was only set to begin in 2027, Plante said, after Montreal plays host to the 2026 world road cycling championships.
The city estimates that the project will cost $90 million.
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