Emergency crews respond to threat of collapse in downtown Montreal
Last Updated: Friday, August 24, 2007 | 4:51 PM ET
CBC News
Emergency crews shut down a busy section of Montreal's downtown core on Friday, including part of the metro system, after the discovery of a large crack in the ceiling of an underground tunnel connecting malls to the subway system.
Engineers were closely inspecting the gaping crack and had closed one block because of fears that a major street above could collapse unless it was reinforced.
One block of Maisonneuve in Montreal was closed down by emergency crews Friday.One block of Maisonneuve in Montreal was closed down by emergency crews Friday.
Problems were spotted at about 1:30 p.m. ET, when employees working in the basement of the landmark Bay department store on Maisonneuve Boulevard noticed water coming in from a section of the ceiling, which had dropped by a few centimetres.
Firefighters were called and one block of Maisonneuve was shut down near the Bay.
The green line of the metro, which runs under the Bay, was closed across all of downtown, from Atwater station to Berri-UQAM.
The closures have caused major traffic problems and there is no indication when the area will re-open.
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Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay has insisted there is no immediate danger posed to the public, and no one has been injured.
The CBC's Nancy Wood, reporting from Montreal, said emergency crews wouldn't risk keeping the area open in light of the Quebec's infrastructure problems, including the collapse of an overpass in Laval in 2006 that killed five people.
"They don't take any chances," Wood said. "If they think there is the possibility of something collapsing, they're just going to shut it down for public safety.
"That's what the firefighters are telling us. They have no idea how likely a collapse is, but it's just not worth taking the risk of leaving it open."
City engineers are examining the site and trying to determine if the problem lies in the 100-year-old pipes that lie about five metres below the ground and about five metres above the McGill metro station, where the Bay is located, she said.
