South direction
The Wellington tunnel

The Wellington tunnel

The Wellington tunnel

Abandoned tunnel under the Lachine canal

Montréal (Quebec), Canada

Abandoned, barricaded and destroyed at the south entry of the Lachine Canal, the tunnel Wellington currently offers lack of interest for urban exploration (can't go inside).

Back in 1990, it permanently ceases its activities with the official opening of the Wellington bridge located next to the deceased tunnel. Built in the 1930s to give work, among other things, to the thousands of unemployed montrealers, problems came very quickly about this tunnel. With separate lanes for trams, cars and pedestrians, the tunnel has saturated quickly. Considering the expensive costs for expansion or renovation, city planners in Montreal are quickly came to the conclusion that a new bridge would be more useful.

Archives of Montreal - Construction of tunnels in the 1930s

With the interest of entrepreneurs for this area, called Griffintown, many of these abandoned places or in poor condition have been, or will be sacrificed in the name of progress. Will rise on their ruins new condominium towers and other modern buildings. This former working-class district will soon have only his name as memory.

Thus, the former Horse Palace stables will have to find a new home, and it doesn't matter if it is 150-year history in Griffintown. Ditto for many other buildings that the city has agreed to sacrifice. This includes, as you probably suspect, the Wellington tunnel.

Devimco, the company who has a stranglehold on this 1.1 million square feet territory, has agreed to maintain only 20 buildings for which it was judged that their heritage value was large enough to be spared demolition cranes .

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