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Boulevard Maisonneuve is an important arterial in the heart of downtownGatineau,Quebec. It serves as connector route between thePortage Bridge fromOttawa toQuebec Autoroutes 5 and50 as well asBoulevard Fournier towards the Gatineau sector of the city, northern portions of theHull sector and the northern east suburbs. It also gives access to theMacdonald-Cartier Bridge and theAlexandra Bridge (viaBoulevard des Allumettières formerly Boulevard Saint-Laurent).
The construction of this road was a source of controversy in the 1960s and 1970s.[citation needed] 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 theNational 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 asPlace du Portage, Place du Centre, theCity Hall and the Congress Centre were built in the downtown area of what was then theCity 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 thePortage Bridge was built at the southern end of Maisonneuve towardsWellington Street and theKichi Zibi Mikan in Ottawa.
Boulevard Maisonneuve is a 6-lane road fromRue Laurier to Boulevard Sacre-Coeur where it splits withBoulevard Fournier andAutoroute 5 towards Ottawa. South ofRue Laurier it becomes thePortage Bridge, part of the National Capital Region'sConfederation Boulevard. During rush hours, one lane is reserved forSTO andOC Transpo buses, taxis andcarpooling (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.[citation needed]It is busy due to its connection to Autoroute 5.[1]
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Today, the City of Gatineau along with theNational Capital Commission have modernized the road between Highway 5 and des Allumettières. They have already made some significantlandscape changes on the road surface with widersidewalks and numerous planters, newtraffic lights and new benches. At the same time, the city is replacing several older houses with newcondominium 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.