MONTREAL – The walls are coming down and bulldozers are moving in.
Demolition began this weekend at the Tannery Village in Saint-Henri, a week before excavation was set to finish.
READ MORE: Old settlement discovered at Turcot Interchange construction site
The 18th to 19th century village was discovered when work began on the new Turcot Interchange.
The site needed to be removed to install infrastructure, including a new sewage collector.
Municipal opposition councillors have come out insisting that the demolition was done quietly and with little warning.
READ MORE: Tannery Village vigil lights up Saint-Henri
There has been grassroots movement to save the site.
A candlelight vigil was held earlier this month when it was announced the site would be demolished.
Transports Quebec told Global News they’ve been clear about the timeline.
READ MORE: Construction to start on Turcot Interchange
“We were very transparent with our communications and what we were planning on doing in this particular area,” said spokesperson Sarah Bensadoun.
“We had neighbourhood committees, we advised the population and we did several media interviews.”
About 150 boxes of artifacts were taken from the site to be catalogued and parts of the village still stand for the time being.
The $3.7 billion highway project is expected to be completed in 2020.
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