WATCH ABOVE: Montreal’s west end boroughs are furious over the state of their deteriorating crosswalks, saying the fading paint is a safety hazard. Global’s Sarah Volstad reports.
MONTREAL – The harsh winters take their toll on the city, especially on its roads.
Each spring, pavement markings across the city need to be repainted.
But of the 879 crosswalks in the Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough, 109 still haven’t received a fresh coat of paint.
“Since 2002, when the new City of Montreal was created, the governance model gave the dossier of marking pavement to Rosemont-La-Petite-Patrie, as a borough,” said Marvin Rotrand, CDN-NDG borough councillor for the district of Snowdon.
“They do the nine boroughs of the former City of Montreal.”
A municipal bylaw states that work to repaint road markings should be undertaken in the months of April and May.
It’s already mid-August, and many are still left untouched.
Some crosswalks, like the one at the intersection of Monkland and Hingston avenues in NDG, is almost completely erased.
It has become a safety hazard for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists alike.
“Right now, it isn’t as much of a problem as it will be as soon as school starts again,” said NDG resident Malcolm Travis.
“There’s a lot of people who are elderly, there’s a lot of people with children in the community.”
Each year, the borough of CDN-NDG pays the borough of Rosemont-La-Petite-Patrie over $400,000 for fresh pavement markings.
“Hardly a year goes by where there isn’t at least one of the councillors on our borough council complaining,” said Rotrand.
“This year, there was a major catch up during the month of July. But my message is that the month of July is too late. Côte-Saint-Luc finished all its line painting by May 20. Montreal-West and Westmount were just about the same time.”
Global News contacted the borough of Rosemont-La-Petite-Patrie for its version of why the work has been delayed, but it refused to comment.
Rotrand said that if they don’t change their ways, CDN-NDG might be forced to take matters into its own hands.
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