Montrealers are used to construction lasting longer than expected, but on Thursday, the mayor of Montreal announced that work on a major stretch of Ste‑Catherine Street West will wrap up a year earlier than planned. Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada said work between St-Marc and Peel streets is now expected to be completed in 2029, instead of the original 2030 deadline. She said the construction company will add more workers to the site, and the city has moved up a $7-million payment to help speed up the timeline. The redevelopment of Ste-Catherine Street West includes plans to create two pedestrian zones as part of a broader effort to modernize the downtown artery. However, Martinez Ferrada said the street is not yet ready to be fully car-free yet. “Ste-Catherine is not in a state where we have the vitality that we need in order to do a full-time pedestrian street. Would we have the capacity to do it eventually? Absolutely. I think it’s something that we need to work with the merchants and work with the local economic agencies to make sure that we have a plan in terms of pedestrians. Everybody likes pedestrian streets, everywhere you go in the world, but right now we need to get people back to downtown and regain the vitality in downtown before we get into the pedestrian projects,” she said. The overhaul of Ste-Catherine Street West is expected to cost a total of $418 million.
