It’s officially done.
The blue painted walls stretching eight kilometres along Highway 20 between Lachine and the Trudeau Airport have been officially inaugurated.
The ceremony took placed Friday morning with the artist who designed the project, Alain Paiement, the mayor of Montreal, Denis Coderre and other officials from the city, the airport and the National Bank of Canada, which paid for the $3.2-million project.
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The electric blue colour that stretches on both sides of the highway includes 84 LED lights that are lit up at night and 520 reflective panels.
The point is to evoke a water theme and the St. Lawrence River as drivers and passengers pass through the area.
“A sense of understanding of their own environment,” Paiement said when asked what he hopes people will take away from the artwork.
During the day, the electric blue is very visible to people passing through the area. Many say the strong colour punctuates the crumbling condition of some of the walls near the 1st Avenue overpass in Lachine.
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Paiement agrees and hopes it can actually encourage Transports Quebec to make repairs.
“It’s one way of also to say… it’s not acceptable, but we will play with it and at some point we will remake it,” he said.
Roughly 290,000 vehicles use this route everyday.
Some motorists Global News spoke to said they’re not very impressed with the project even if was paid for with private funding.
The borough mayor of Lachine even admits the work exposes the deteriorating infrastructure.
“It’s true, but at the same time, we’re talking about an investment from the private sector of $3.2 million. We’re talking about heart and it’s always personal,” Claude Dauphin said.
The project is expected to remain in place for five years.