Safety, costs and design at centre of renewed debate over Berri Street project

Montreal pauses major redevelopment project on Berri Street

A major redevelopment project already underway on Berri Street became a point of contention at city hall this week after Montreal mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada announced plans to revisit part of the design.

The existing plan called for converting the current two-way bike path between Sherbrooke and De Maisonneuve streets into separate one-way bike lanes on either side of Berri Street.

At a council meeting on Tuesday, Martinez Ferrada signalled that the plan would be revisited.

In a statement to CTV News, the mayor said she refused to approve this project, adding it was “not good.”

“The project proposed by the previous administration does not match the ambition we have for this strategic sector,” she said. “We want to ensure we develop a design that lives up to its potential and the expectations of the community.”

The mayor said the decision was not based solely on concerns about cycling safety. She said the city had asked staff to evaluate alternatives that would still meet the Réseau express vélo (REV) cycling network standards while avoiding routing the bike path in front of the Montreal bus terminal entrance.

According to the administration, that could eliminate the need for extensive mitigation measures such as additional signage intended to reduce collision risks.

Opposition raises safety concerns

The announcement drew criticism from the official opposition, which argued the current design was developed specifically to address longstanding safety issues.

Christopher McCray, city councillor for Ville-Marie and Projet Montréal’s spokesperson on active transportation and road safety, said the redesign had been the result of years of analysis by transportation experts.

He said the intersection at Berri and Ontario streets is already known to be dangerous, making safety the primary consideration.

“There have been 300 collisions over the past few years, and 100 people have been injured,” he said. “A cyclist was killed at Berri and Ontario a few years ago, and the coroner recommended reviewing and redesigning the bike path for safety."

McCray said engineers recommended replacing the current two-way bike path with one-way lanes on each side of the street.

“It’s well known at this point that two-way bike paths on major streets are more dangerous because there’s a lot to handle at intersections for drivers and for cyclists,” he said.

McCray said removing the planned redesign from the project has created uncertainty about both the timeline and cost of the work.

He warned that altering a major contract after construction has already begun could come with additional expenses.

“Obviously, when you modify a contract that’s so major, while its construction is already underway, you’re like to have costs associated with that,” he said.

The debate comes even as major work on Berri Street continues.

The city said ongoing construction, including repairs to the metro tunnel’s waterproofing membrane as well as infrastructure and road work, will proceed as planned — and that the review applies only to the future surface-level design of the corridor.

Before the latest dispute emerged, the project was expected to be completed in November 2028.

Exactly what the final design will look like — and whether the timeline or budget will ultimately change — remains to be determined.