- November 11, 2025
The Metropolitan Expressway reconstruction represents a major opportunity to rethink one of Montreal’s major infrastructure. Let’s seize this chance to undertake an urban redesign that addresses significant current challenges, including affordable housing and climate resilience. This position invites exploring innovative solutions like a highway deck project covering the Metropolitan with public transit, a linear park, and social housing, reconnecting Montreal’s urban fabric while advancing sustainable mobility. This scale of work demands we choose: recreate what exists, or reimagine this infrastructure to meet the needs of today and tomorrow.
Open Letter by Louis T. Lemay
Today’s urban, environmental, and social challenges require that every major initiative contributes to creating solutions. The Metropolitan Highway reconstruction presents an extraordinary opportunity to realize the full potential of this vast public corridor that runs through Montreal. The current plan would rebuild this infrastructure as it is. We propose seeing it instead as an invitation to think about public investment differently: holistically rather than in silos, and by bringing together different levels of government as well as civil society actors. Let’s unite our perspectives to develop an inclusive solution that will generate multiple positive impacts, now and for generations to come.
The rendering accompanying this open letter shows what could be accomplished by creating a deck covering the highway lanes, a model that could serve multiple urgent objectives. A portion of the deck could be reserved for rental units and social housing, addressing the housing crisis. A linear park would improve air quality along the Metropolitan while repairing the fracture in the urban fabric. Efficient public transit could be integrated, reducing travel times as well as automobile dependence. In short, we would create facilities several kilometres long that mitigate the impact of heat waves, flooding, and other extreme weather events; that facilitate sustainable mobility; and that provide access to new quality housing.
Other portions of the deck could accommodate residential and commercial development. The significant value of air rights above the highway could serve as financial leverage to realize this project. This model is already proving relevant elsewhere: the Capitol Crossing experience in Washington informs our thinking; Slussen in Stockholm and the Paris Rive Gauche district also offer inspiration.
The space occupied by the Metropolitan is immense, and in a densely built sector. Since we must rebuild, let’s do so in a way that addresses the multiple challenges of our time.
For people travelling through the city from east to west as well as for residents living along the Metropolitan, we’re talking about a remarkable difference.
We therefore add our voice, as a corporate citizen, to those of community organizations and research groups that have already invited government bodies to approach this opportunity with vision and boldness, to better make it a major transformative project. Let’s mobilize national expertise to create exemplary infrastructure, a manifestation of what we aspire to as a society.
Let’s use the remaining years before reconstruction begins to develop proposals that consider all possibilities. Let’s bring together expertise and seriously explore all options. We have a responsibility to demonstrate rigour, ambition, and creativity in the face of this opportunity.
