The Mount Royal Road Blocking Project is coming to an end. Will it be made permanent?

The controversial pilot project blocking Mount Royal in Montreal will end Wednesday at midnight. Now the city has to decide if it will become permanent.

Since June 2, private vehicles have been prohibited from using the popular park as a shortcut between the Côte-des-Neiges and Notre-Dame-de-Grâce boroughs and Plateau-Mont-Royal.

The Camillien-Houde Way and the Remembrance Trail, which meet near Smith House to create a transit street, have been divided into two distinct parts.

The city installed signs and makeshift gates that partially blocked the roadway, but the transit route was still open to municipal and emergency vehicles, as well as buses and cyclists.

This partial blockage of the busy road has caused confusion among some and aroused the distrust of others. The Montreal police imposed numerous fines on drivers who ignored the signs. More than 250 tickets were distributed in the first two weeks.

The temporary roads will be withdrawn on Tuesday and Wednesday, announced Monday the city in an announcement.

Montreal has also built temporary facilities along Remembrance Road and the Camillien-Houde Way – swings, benches and lookouts. The dismantling of these facilities will begin on November 1 and will last approximately two weeks.

Another series of consultations

The public consultation, organized by the Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM), will be relaunched on November 8th. This consultation will be launched with the presentation of the evaluation of the pilot project by the City of Montreal.

The OCPM will continue to receive submissions until the end of November and will submit its report in the winter of 2019, said Montreal.

Those wishing to express their views on the project are invited to do so on the OCPM website.

The site's "online engagement" tool is only available in French, but contributions in French and English will be taken into account, the site says.