ROADSKY TRAFFIC SAFETY CORPORATION

The town of Montreal West has put up a new road barrier between itself and VilleSt. Pierre along Broughton Rd., a move that has aggravated those who live in Ville St. Pierre, a district of Lachine.

"There have been a lot of misconceptions about this issue -this isn't about Montreal West trying to create a gated community for itself," Mayor Beny Masella insisted yesterday.

Over the past two weeks, Montreal West has installed a rectangular bed of road barrier in the middle of Broughton, right on the border of Ville St. Pierre, where Broughton becomes des Erables St.

On top of the concrete bed the city has embedded vertical barrier posts; signage informs people that the road barrier should only be crossed in case of emergency. The guardrail posts are made of plastic and are bendable, so that if somebody drives over one, it doesn't damage the vehicle.

In this respect, they are a lot like guardrail posts now being used on some Montreal one-way residential streets to narrow traffic down into one single lane to slow down drivers.

Montreal West recently won the right to put up a road barrier in a Quebec appeal court, and Masella says he informed Lachine Mayor Claude Dauphin last July about what Montreal West's response to that ruling would be -namely, the work that has been done over the past two weeks.

The new traffic barrier replaces an old one that consisted of two giant flower pots on Broughton set side by side -just far away enough from one another to allow for a vehicle to pass in between. Signage indicated passage was only allowed for emergencies, however.

Now fire trucks, police cars and ambulances will have to drive over the bed of concrete, which looks to be about 12 centimetres, and run over the collapsible vertical guardrail posts, too. The concrete bed has bevelled sides to reduce the impact on tires. In the case of a need for an evacuation of the area, Masella said, everyone will be allowed to drive through the new road barrier.

The original barrier was erected by hydraulic pile driver for the same reason Montreal West closed off access to Broughton from Westminister Blvd. 20 years ago - to discourage motorists from Notre Dame de Grace from using Montreal West residential streets as a route to Norman St. to enter Highway 20 near 32nd Ave.

Many people in N.D.G. had been using Broughton/des Erables as a shortcut to Trudeau airport in Dorval, and the West Island in general. People still take the Norman shortcut, but access to it now is generally down busy St. Jacques St. and Avon Rd. near Montreal West town hall.

Ville St. Pierre residents opposed to the road barrier were able to produce traffic studies showing not many people were taking side streets through Montreal West to get to Norman St. anymore. They have argued this means there is no reason for a traffic barrier on Broughton/des Erables.

Now, because of the highway barrier, people who live on such Ville St. Pierre streets as Hillcrest Ave., Mount Vernon Ave. and Rosewood St. have to drive down a steep hill on des Erables and then take a long detour to get back up to Westminster. The gradient has a name -Devil's Hill.

In court litigation over the traffic barrier issue, the city of Montreal, representing people in Ville St. Pierre, argued against a road barrier on the basis it jeopardized public security.

However, the Montreal fire department said while the kind of soft road barrier that Montreal West was proposing would slow down its response times, it wouldn't prevent access to trouble spots altogether. In the circumstances, the appeal court ruled in favour of Montreal West.

People on the Ville St. Pierre side say they resent the way the highway barrier is shutting them off from quick access to Westminister. Although Masella insists the highway barrier shouldn't be seen as a class issue, pitting wealthy Montreal West against more working-class Ville St. Pierre, people in Ville St. Pierre see things differently.

"It's huge elitism on the part of Montreal West," said Megan Schmidt, 17, a Hillcrest resident and Dawson College student, as she walked by the road barrier yesterday toward Westminster.

Judy Tennant, also a Hillcrest resident, said she wants officials from the fire department and Urgences Sante go look at the traffic barrier and hear their opinion before saying what road barrier opponents' next move might be.