Boulevard Fournier is a main route in the city of

Gatineau Gatineau ( ; ) is a city in southwestern Quebec, Canada. It is located on the northern bank of the Ottawa River, directly across from Ottawa, Ontario. Gatineau is the largest city in the Outaouais administrative region of Quebec and is also p ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

that connects the Gatineau and

Hull Hull may refer to: Structures * The hull of an armored fighting vehicle, housing the chassis * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a sea-going craft * Submarine hull Ma ...

sectors. It starts as the extension of Boulevard Greber in the old city of

and ends at the entrance of the downtown core where it becomes Boulevard Maisonneuve which connects the

Portage Bridge The Portage Bridge () crosses the Ottawa River just down-river from the Chaudière Bridge, joining the communities of Gatineau, Quebec and Ottawa, Ontario. It links Laurier Street and Alexandre-Taché Boulevard in the Hull sector of Gatineau ...

towards Ottawa. It was once part of Route 148 until the Quebec Ministry of Transportation rerouted the provincial highway onto Autoroute 50 and Autoroute 5 as a concurrency. The road crosses right in the middle of Lac Leamy Park one of the key greenspaces of the city. A road connects Fournier to the Lake and its beaches itself. Several bike paths connect the boulevard to the lake or Jacques Cartier Park and downtown Gatineau and

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

. The artery was named after Alphonse Fournier.

Lady Aberdeen Bridge

The Lady Aberdeen Bridge that crosses the

Gatineau River The Gatineau River (, ) is a river in western Quebec, Canada, which rises in lakes north of the Baskatong Reservoir and flows south to join the Ottawa River at the city of Gatineau, Quebec. The river is long and drains an area of . Toponomy Ac ...

is the oldest bridge connecting the former city of Gatineau to the former City of

. Previously only a two-lane bridge, it was built at the beginning in 1894 and named the Gatineau Bridge. It was renamed Lady Aberdeen for the wife of former Governor General of Canada

John Hamilton-Gordon, 1st Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair John Campbell Hamilton-Gordon, 1st Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair, (3 August 1847 – 7 March 1934), styled Earl of Aberdeen from 1870–1916, was a Scottish peer and colonial administrator. Born in Edinburgh, Aberdeen held office in sever ...

, Ishbel Maria Marjoribanks when she nearly drowned near the bridge while returning from a meeting at the nearby Saint-François-de-Sales church, and was rescued by local villagers. It was replaced in 1931 by the current structure by the

Dominion Bridge Company The Dominion Bridge Company, Limited was a Canadian steel bridge constructor originally based in Lachine, Quebec. From the core business of steel bridge component fabrication, the company diversified into related areas such as the fabrication of ...

. However, due to the population growth in the Pointe-Gatineau sector, a second bridge that is used for southbound commuters was built. Recently, the city of Gatineau was concerned about the structure of the older portion of the bridge and is doing repairs to solidify it. It imposed a weight restriction on the area prompting heavy trucks to travel on Autoroute 50. Major reconstruction of the old structure started in 2006 and continued for most of 2007. In 2007, the construction forced the shut down of the northbound lanes towards Pointe-Gatineau, diverting the traffic towards the southbound structure with one lane in each direction except during peak periods where it is closed to northbound traffic in the morning and southbound traffic in the afternoon. Cyclist and pedestrian traffic are forced to use the western sidewalk and a narrow lane beside it. Part of the Route Verte provincial bicycle network, TV station CHOT-TV discussed during a news report safety issues during the construction period due to the high risk of accidents between cyclists and vehicles as one of the collisions during the summer was a fatal one.

Transit Priorities

It is also the main route used by STO buses traveling to and from downtown Gatineau and the old Gatineau sector and there are bus lanes along most of the stretch. Those lanes were necessary due to the very high flow of traffic (sometimes there is much congestion), since this road is used as an alternative to Autoroute 50. Express routes and some regular routes travels on Fournier, but express routes do not serve the stops due to a closed-doors policy that speed up travel time for express users. On both sides of the bridges, there are transit signal priorities in which buses can cross the intersection before the green light preventing to be caught in line-ups. The measures are in place until the STO's Rapibus, which will follow the Quebec-Gatineau Railway Line, will be in operation starting in 2010.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fournier Streets in Gatineau Bridges in Gatineau Road bridges in Quebec

Lady Aberdeen Bridge

Transit Priorities

See also

References