Boulevard Maisonneuve is an important arterial in the heart of Downtown

Gatineau Gatineau ( ; ) is a city in western Quebec, Canada. It is located on the northern bank of the Ottawa River, immediately across from Ottawa, Ontario. Gatineau is the largest city in the Outaouais administrative region and is part of Canada's N ...

, Quebec. It serves as connector route between the Portage Bridge from

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

to Quebec Autoroutes 5 and 50 as well as

Boulevard Fournier Boulevard Fournier is a main route in the city of Gatineau, Quebec that connects the Gatineau and Hull, Quebec, Hull sectors. It starts as the extension of Boulevard Gréber (Gatineau), Boulevard Greber in the old city of Gatineau and ends at the en ...

towards the Gatineau sector of the city, northern portions of the

Hull Hull may refer to: Structures * Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship * Submarine hull Mathematics * Affine hull, in affi ...

sector and the northern east suburbs. It also gives access to the Macdonald-Cartier Bridge and the Alexandra Bridge (via Boulevard des Allumettières formerly Boulevard Saint-Laurent).

History

The construction of this road was a source of controversy in the 1960s and 1970s. The entire area where Boulevard Maisonneuve is now located was a residential area with a large number of houses that were built early in the 20th century. At that time, there was an urgent need for a main road to be built because the Quebec side of the National Capital Region was growing very rapidly and more commuters were driving from the suburbs towards downtown Hull. During the 1970s, several federal government offices buildings such as Place du Portage, Place du Centre, the

City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

and the Congress Centre were built in the downtown area of what was then the City of Hull. In addition, numerous skyscrapers were built in downtown Ottawa increasing the amount of commuter traffic towards central Ottawa from both sides of the river. The controversial decision was then made to demolish a long line of houses in order to make room for the new arterial boulevard, thus making commuter travel towards Ottawa much easier. At the same time the Portage Bridge was built at the southern end of Maisonneuve towards Wellington Street and the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway in Ottawa.

Today

Current Boulevard

Boulevard Maisonneuve is a 6-lane road from Rue Laurier to Boulevard Sacre-Coeur where it splits with

and Autoroute 5 towards Ottawa. South of Rue Laurier it becomes the Portage Bridge, part of the National Capital Region's

Confederation Boulevard Confederation Boulevard (french: Boulevard de la Confédération) is a "ceremonial and discovery route" in Canada's National Capital Region, running through Parliament Hill and encompassing downtown areas in Ottawa and Gatineau. Some of Canada's ...

. During rush hours, one lane is reserved for STO and OC Transpo buses, taxis and carpooling (with at least 3 people per vehicle). The speed limit is 50 km/h but traffic flow during off-peak hours is generally much faster.

Recent road and condominium projects

Today, the City of Gatineau along with the National Capital Commission have modernized the road between Highway 5 and des Allumettières. They have already made some significant

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...

changes on the road surface with wider

sidewalk A sidewalk (North American English), pavement (British English), footpath in Australia, India, New Zealand and Ireland, or footway, is a path along the side of a street, street, highway, terminals. Usually constructed of concrete, pavers, brick ...

s and numerous planters, new traffic lights and new benches. At the same time, the city is replacing several older houses with new

condominium A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership structure whereby a building is divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned. The term can be applied to the building or complex ...

projects to give the road a much more modern look. The latest update was a project to construct new units at the corner of Boulevard des Allumettières. These will replace two or three very old units nearby. The City tries not to mix different types of units (which means not mixing early 20th century houses with more modern ones); however, this may be only a tactic to hide the poorer areas of the city, since the downtown area is considered to be the poorest in all of Gatineau. However, there are still numerous old structures in rough shape that are located along the eastern side of the route.

History

Today

Current Boulevard

Recent road and condominium projects

See also