Residents in Saint-Henri insist noise and dust from construction on the Turcot Interchange is so bad they’re leaving the neighbourhood.
Mario Andrews owns Café Saint-Henri on Saint-Jacques Street.
He moved to LaSalle to escape the construction.
“We moved out, and since we did our life got better,” he said.
“We love the neighbourhood and the people in Saint-Henri but with the dust, it’s impossible.”
Work on the site has greatly increased over the last few months with trucks circling the Turcot Interchange around the clock – meaning dust and noise pollution 24 hours a day for residents nearby.
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“We have the windows closed all the time,” said Andrews.
“We have the A/C running because it’s impossible to have fresh air with this dust.”
Yves Lavoie, who lives on Saint-Jacques Street, agreed the sound of the trucks is keeping him up at night.
“It was a warm night and my windows were open, there were tons of trucks and dust,” he said.
“The dust is a bad thing that we really have to cope with.”
Transports Quebec said it does monitor air quality and noise levels in the area.
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Earlier this month, the Sud-Ouest borough banned trucks from making deliveries between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., but because the Turcot is a provincial project, trucks don’t have to follow the rules.
Lavoie argued one of the worst parts is the unpredictable schedule.
“It’s always a surprise, it’s never the same,” he said.
“I can’t say ‘it’s 9 a.m., so there’s going to be a lot of trucks.’ Some days it’s quiet and some days it’s hell.”
The issues have been taken up by Saint-Henri’s Good Neighbour committee.
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Derek Robertson, who is on the board and lives on Saint-Marguerite Street, said he’s heard many complaints from residents.
“You wake up and you hear the noise already,” he said.
“There’s fine dust on the seat of my bike, on cars. There’s always noise, dust, pollution – it’s become a constant.”
Robertson grew up in the West Island and compares it to living next to Trudeau airport.
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“It’s like we have jet engines landing and running up and down the streets constantly. It’s that type of noise,” he said.
The Turcot Interchange project is expected to be completed in 2020.
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