A press release from the NCC yesterday announced that “Saturday Short Loops begin this Saturday.”
This means that beginning at 6am on Saturdays the section of Gatineau Parkway starting where the Champlain Parkway branches off (known as “Mica” to some) will be closed to cars until 11am. This section nominally extends to include the “north loop” (or “Doldrums”), ending at the foot of the Fortune Parkway (at Meech Lake Road).
In the press release this second section was said to be closed to cars until 1pm. This of course is a vestige of the template text the NCC communications people are using year after year for this announcement since in actual fact the north loop is entirely closed to cars for the duration of the summer based on the culvert collapse near P8 (which also effectively cuts the “short loop” into two even shorter loops.
The specific portions of parkway concerned are shown here in yellow and green (from the NCC).
The cards that GuideGatineau has begun distributing to promote the website are considered to be highly environmentally responsible due to the fact that the paper used is 100% recycled and is produced using energy from biofuels plus the ink is vegetable based.
To be fair I am reminded by Jasmine at the NCC that Saturday Short Loops is running until September 24, so the north loop is likely to re-open to vehicles before then.
I can’t understand why it’s going to take them so long to repair that washed out section the north loop. It is, however, encouraging that that section of road will be closed to traffic on Saturdays for most of the morning. Whoot!
Road Meech Lake Rd from P8 to Fortun this morning – Quebecois cobble stones! Glad to see the bigger holes filled in.
Cheers