With the action of COP – 15 conference Montreal braces for the huge traffic snarl

Friday, November 25, 2022

As the commencement of COP 15 approaches, the police presence around Montreal’s convention centre Palais des Congres increases.

In view of the city for the UN conference on biodiversity thousands of delegates from around the world are expected to descend.

However their arrival requires a major security presence, resulting in closed roads near the convention centre.

Also, the traffic is expected to be very heavy.

Glenn Castanheira, the general manager of Montreal centre-ville, told that this was a more diplomatic event which would have some very positive impacts for downtown Montreal, economically, especially for our hotels, but would cause certain disruptions where others may not necessarily see it.

Many employers with offices near the Palais des Congres are already telling their employees to work from home during the 12 day event.

Additionally it’s announced that the place -d’ Armes metro station, which connects directly to the convention centre, would be closed as of December 1. All trains would travel through without stopping.

To the frustration of the traffic analysts the de la Montage exit off of the Autoroute 720 would not potentially re – open in time.

Traffic analyst Rick Lechner told the Global News that it was unfortunately it was poor planning again which should have been addressed as unacceptable and added that it was too late now.

It means many cars would have to take the next exit.

Castanheira stated that they did not understand why the MTQ had not accelerated the re-opening earlier which could have alleviated a lot of those impacts that they were expecting to see.

The fences around the convention centre was scheduled to remain in place well beyond the conference’s December 19 closing, which means traffic congestion could continue through the holidays.

« Back to Page

• Experience the magic: Montréal’s science centre to host total solar eclipse viewing party on April 8

• Pandox strikes deal to sell DoubleTree by Hilton Montreal in major transaction

• Montreal 2030: Reviving nightlife in the Canadian city

• Montreal secures top spot in 2022 International Congress and Convention Association rankings for international association events

• Emirates takes off to Montréal