POTD: Rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest

From 2016 09 10 Montreal

Today's photo-of-the-day looks down Rue Sainte-Catherine, the main shopping street of downtown Montreal. What you see in this photo is only the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. "The street runs parallel to the largest segments of Montreal's underground city. The series of interconnected office tower basements and shopping complexes that make up this main thoroughfare lie immediately north of the street."

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Imagine Dallas and its tunnel system, if above ground Dallas had a great shopping street and underground a system of tunnels that is more than just some lunch places in utility corridors. I know, it takes some imagination, but try it. I don't know how Montreal does it, but Dallas ought to send a team of urban planners north to figure it out. And Montreal isn't standing still. The city plans a major reconstruction of the street and its buried utilities. During the two year construction project, a series of huge, inflatable tunnels will form a vault over the work areas and pedestrian zones. Damn, Canadians do infrastructure right.