Heart of downtown Montreal closed for 2 years as work on Ste-Catherine Street begins

Downtown Montreal is once againa construction zone as the second phase of a decade-long project to revamp Ste-Catherine Street begins.

Work on Quebec's busiest commercial artery began Monday. The street is completely closed off on both sides of Peel Street, between Stanley and Mansfield streets.

This sectionwill remain closed for the next two years, with work expecting to wrap up in the fall of2025.

This phase of the project includes replacingsewer lines and pipes underground infrastructurethat is more than a century old and obsolete, the city says.Sidewalks will also be widened and more greenery added.

Vehicle traffic is being detoured around the site.

The budgetto revamp this section of the streetis $70 million, saysGlenn Castanheira, the executive director for the Downtown Montreal Merchants' Association.

"Altogether, I mean, we need to go all the way to Atwater [Avenue], so we can expect many hundreds of millions of dollars will be needed," he said of the costfor the remaining phases of the project.

The city has said it will be offering a $5,000 lump sum for affected business owners on top of its aid program that offers up to $40,000 to companies that can prove they lost money during the construction.

The first phase of construction got underway in 2018 between Mansfield and de Bleury Streets.