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2.5.3 The City’s gateways

Montréal's territory is accessed by fifteen road bridges and six railway bridges. The need to cross waterways provides an opportunity to express the City's personality through appropriate treatment of its gateways. Moreover, the Master Plan recognizes the importance of designing all of the City's gateways in a distinctive manner while giving consideration to the following:

• Ensuring the quality of buildings located near the City gateways and the integration of commercial signage;
• Maintaining views from the bridges and integrating billboards into the urban landscape;
• Enhancing the vegetation and riverbanks;
• Lighting of bridges and other structures;
• Integrating road signs and infrastructure into the urban setting.

In addition to bridges, the other City gateways that handle a large share of Montréal's foreign visitors also require special attention: Montréal - Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport , Central Station and the port.

Some City gateways with specific redevelopment or improvement issues will be the focus of detailed planning whose guidelines are described in Chapter 4.

Implementation measures

• Ensure special care of the City gateways in the course of public works projects.
• Implement appropriate regulatory guidelines to give the City's gateways an overall image of quality in keeping with the above considerations.
• Design and implement a project to improve the City's gateways in association with the Ministère des Transports du Québec and the Federal Bridge Corporation.