The city of Montreal says it'll be redoing plans for the new bike path on Clark Street in the Plateau after residents and merchants complained there wouldn't be room for two sides of parking and for emergency vehicles to pass through.
In a statement sent to CJAD 800 last night, the city of Montreal said they'll be reducing the median separating the bike path and the street on Clark by 30 cm (12 inches).
That means the newly constructed median on Clark between Laurier and Fairmount will have to be cut down to the new dimensions.
Brand spanking new median separating bike path from street on Clark between Laurier and Fairmount will have to be trimmed by 12 inches to allow for 2 lanes of parking & for emergency vehicles to get through. Merchants and residents say it was a waste of time and money. #CJAD800 pic.twitter.com/3QTTjm8aQS
— Shuyee Lee (@sleeCJAD) July 24, 2018
Merchants and residents said it was a waste of time and money for all that work only to have to redo it.
Who will pay and why was it built like that in the first place without testing the traffic - that's what Nat Scalia, owner of nearby Caffe Grazie Mille wants to know.
"Somebody should be accountable - who misled the city into doing this work, is it the construction company, is it the engineers, who is it, who made the mistake and why did it happen?" said Scalia in an interview with CJAD 800.
Scalia said he wants to know if it was unavoidable or if it was a mistake - if it was the latter:
"Whoever made the mistake should be (held accountable) and should be fired," said Scalia.
Merchants and residents say it was a waste of time and money to build the median on Clark between Laurier and Fairmount without first checking to see if there was room for parking and emergency vehicles. Nat Scalia owner of Caffe Grazie Mille is one of them. #CJAD800 pic.twitter.com/INJoBcmEMM
— Shuyee Lee (@sleeCJAD) July 24, 2018
The new-size median will be built on the rest of Clark St. up until St. Viateur. There'll also be openings every 60 metres to make snow removal easier.
The city said this hiccup should not affect the schedule of the work that's expected to wrap up in November. It's also currently calculating the costs of the modifications.
It also maintained that there was always room for emergency vehicles to pass and that the changes were done to accomodate snow removal.
Scalia said he estimates he's lost a few hundred dollars a day since the project began last month.
"Just let's get this done and over with so my business can continue operating in good faith and I can pay my taxes as a citizen," said Scalia.
Brand new median on Clark protecting the bike path will have to be cut by 12 inches to allow for parking & emergency vehicles. So the work will have to be extended when it was supposed to end in Nov. Nat Scalia owner of Caffe Grazie Mille says just hurry up already. #CJAD800 pic.twitter.com/16Xgpsubhn
— Shuyee Lee (@sleeCJAD) July 24, 2018