Pont Jaques Cartier bike path - Longueuil side rebuilding project

In this post we call the Pont Jacques Cartier bridge the PJC. Don't be confused.


The view from this bridge is amazing.

Sydney Australia has made climbing over the Sydney Harbour Bridge an expensive tourist attraction. The view from the PJC is 1) better, 2) free, and 3) accessible on bike. This should be on the tourism "roadmap" for Montreal.

The PJC bridge was completely renovated in the 1990s. A much-wider pedestrian and bicycle sidewalk was added to the bridge at that time. It even had a rest stop / lookout on the bridge. The view is always worth a stop.

But like all large engineering projects, a few small details get forgotten.

In this case it was over in Longueuil where the bridge arrives back on terra firma after crossing the enormous Saint Laurence river. At the end of the bridge and at the start of "being on the ground," the bike path/sidewalk returned to it's original 1960s sidewalk width, around 4 feet wide.

This old path was an accident waiting to happen, and happen accidents sure did. Finally enough was enough and a year after that the bridge is replacing the Longueuil sidewalk with a wider mixed-use bikepath and sidewalk.

It is worth noting that the bureaucrats previous solution to the danger problem was to put up a walk your bike sign. Uh-huh, that worked real good.


Take the stairs, but not for much longer.

The replacement bike path is under construction and is supposed to finish in December.


The first section of the new sidewalk-bike path is almost complete.


There are some improvements on the Montreal side, now the bridge connects north.

We can reveal that a ride on the 3.4 kilometre long Pont Jacques Cartier sidewalk/bikepath is one of our favorite "secret" Montreal delights.