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While officials with the Borough of Villeray/St-Michel/Park Extension continue efforts to create a pedestrian crossing from Ogilvy Avenue over the AMT rail line to de Castelnau Avenue in eastern Park Extension, the condemned pedestrian overpass on St. Roch Street will be staying in place until there is sufficient money to demolish it, says city councillor Mary Deros.
‘Not dangerous,’ she says
“I was told by the borough services that it cost $100,000 to demolish and cart it away,” Deros told NPEN. While some, including Borough Mayor Anie Samson, have claimed the abandoned structure is dangerous and tried to use it for political gain, Deros maintains that blue collar workers hammered away loose concrete pieces of the structure and removed them so that nothing would fall to the street.
“Regardless of what Anie said back then, if there were pieces falling, do you think the railway would allow it with their trains crossing?” noted Deros. She said a press conference Samson held beneath the St. Roch overpass a few days before last Nov. 1’s municipal election “was a political game she played back then as part of her campaign. But even the services said during a meeting that it was not dangerous.
An eyesore for now
“Had it been dangerous, the services have a responsibility. And if Anie was aware of that before the elections that it was dangerous, she should have forced some action. We could have found the money somewhere or forced the city to come and demolish it. But it is not dangerous. It is just an eyesore right now.” One of Deros’s proudest accomplishments during her time in office has been the creation in 1999 of a pedestrian level-crossing at the eastern extremity of Ball Avenue over to Jarry Park.
While there currently are some obstructions, she hopes to eventually duplicate the achievement by implementing a new pedestrian crossing on Ogilvy near the AMT commuter rail station. But there is no question of a pedestrian crossing ever being re-established where the abandoned overpass on St. Roch now stands. Deros maintains it would be too close to the one planned on Ogilvy.
Deros won’t wait
As for when the crossing on Ogilvy will open, she said, “We’re waiting for negotiations from the railway. We are in favour. We had given a favourable report. Centre city is giving a favourable report. But at the same time, the centre city said they wanted to have a complete study of all the crossings that they want to develop to see how to properly develop them.
“And my argument with that is that we have been negotiating and planning for the past two years. I don’t want to wait another two or three years. I don’t want to wait until this complete study for the whole city is made. Let’s do this one and then continue doing the study for the rest of the city. But this one we have to finalize because it’s necessary for our district to be able to develop the east side of Park Ex.”
Photo StRochOverpass: Park Ex city councillor Mary Deros says a press conference Borough Mayor Anie Samson held beneath the St. Roch overpass a few days before last Nov. 1’s municipal election “was a political game she played” as part of her campaign.