Orange cones line newly inaugurated Place des Montréalaises after reports of injuries
Posted June 4, 2025 11:51 am.
Last Updated June 5, 2025 10:23 am.
Just a few weeks after a public square linking downtown and Old Montreal was inaugurated – following four years of work and a $100 million price tag – Montrealers are being warned to tread lightly.
That’s because the design of the new Place des Montréalaises has reportedly led to a an injury, due to people notably tripping on the gutter system.
Orange cones, “sidewalk closed” and detour signs could be seen lining the park Wednesday as a result.
The City of Montreal tells CityNews it received four reports of safety issues since the public square opened, including from the man who reported being injured there.
“The City of Montreal is taking the situation seriously and is working with the Lemay firm to finalize the design of a grating that will cover the gutter channel. This grating will be installed in the coming weeks,” a spokesperson said in an email.
“The current temporary signage will be replaced with more streamlined signage in the coming days.”
Lemay is the structural engineering firm behind the Place des Montréalaises. CityNews reached out to the firm for a comment, but did not immediately hear back.
The risk of injury was predicted by some Montrealers in recent weeks – since the May 16 inauguration – according to online posts on forums like Agora Montréal and Reddit.
“During my three visits, I saw five people tripping over these invisible drops,” one user wrote on Agora Montréal. “It seems to be a major issue. It’s very surprising in a public space these days. I wonder how they’ll be resolved.”
“I also saw three people on a previous visit trip and almost fall backwards on the linear gutter between the traffic circles and the pedestrian route to the metro,” another user replied. “There were cones there at the time. What’s new today is that they’ve blocked off the entire slab, including the path south of the traffic circles.”
“There’s a high risk of falling if you don’t look down,” a Reddit user wrote last week. “I’m not going back there anymore.”
The Place des Montréalaises was designed to recognize the city’s female pioneers. “(It) serves as a daily reminder that women and girls must never doubt the place they must loudly and clearly claim in our society,” said Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante during the inauguration.
Ensemble Montréal, the opposition at city hall, blames the Plante administration for rushing the inauguration “by removing construction site signage and putting it back up the next day.”
“This is yet another example of poor construction site planning. The orange cones can’t just disappear when Projet Montréal is parading in front of the cameras,” Ensemble Montréal’s Christine Black told CityNews.
Black, who’s the borough mayor for Montreal North, also accused Projet Montréal of “having the audacity to take credit for Place des Montréalaises — a project born of close collaboration between the previous administration and the Quebec government.”
