A brief article about my work  is in this week’ s issue of Hour Magazine. For those who don’t like to get newsprint on their fingers,  you can just read it online here.

I’ve also made some improvements to the Interactive Map section of this site. Hopefully the placemarks for the photos will be a bit more informative now. There are still quite a few more things I want to do with the map, including incorporating historical photos from the City’s archives and snippets of oral history. It’s just a matter of taking the time to figure out how to do it well.

A shaft underneath Bridge Street once used for dumping snow into the sewers.

Perhaps the most interesting underground features in the Montreal area are found within the old sewers built during the mid to late 1800s. Usually constructed entirely of brick and of sizes up to 9’ in diameter, they often appear to be steeped in history in a way that newer concrete sewers just can’t compare to. They have a warmer and organic quality to them as well that I tend to appreciate. Where concrete sewer systems can feel like cold modernist pieces of architecture, the brick ones seem more like inviting Victorian homes.

A good example of these characteristics can be found within the Point St. Charles Collector. As its name implies, this sewer was responsible for the drainage of the eastern half of Point St. Charles. (The western half was serviced by another sewer that I first started to explore in this entry). The sewer was also responsible for a portion of the neighbourhood once known as Victoriatown. Given that so little from this area can still be found at street level, it’s of some comfort that at least its sewer system can still be found and explored today.

Continue reading…

With no rain in the immediate forecast,  nel58 and I decided to re-visit a sewer that we had first entered two summers ago. We had to leave at the time because the air quality didn’t seem all that great.  I had sort of forgotten about it after getting distracted by a handful of other things around the city. Last night it was considerably fresher. Well, as fresh as a sewer can get, I suppose.  It didn’t smell like rotten eggs this time so that was good enough for us.

This was taken towards the end of the Point St-Charles Collector, near the intersection of Mill and Riverside in the area once known as Goose Village. It’s an old one; built between 1864 and 1866 when the city was beginning to develop a systematic drainage plan. Of course  it’s had its share alterations over the years, such as the side-pipe in the above photo which had to be patched up with concrete. Other sections have been walled off or filled in with rubble containing a fair amount of old glass and pieces of pottery.

More photos, maps, and historical stuff to follow soon. In the meantime, click the photo above for the larger version and (hopefully) enjoy.

Typical Montreal weather this summer.

Nothing like almost a month’s worth of overcast or rainy days to put a damper on underground exploring. Most days the precipitation never amounts to much, but the thread of a thunderstorm always seems to there on the horizon. I’ve been inside sewers and storm drains during showers in the past without running into any problems, but the weather’s been too unpredictable for me to want to try pushing my luck.

Hopefully the weather during August will be a bit more stable, but with more rain in the forecast over the rest of the week, it doesn’t appear as though things are going to be improving anytime soon.

In the meantime, here’s a selection of items found over the past few weeks which may be of some interest.

City needs to lead on water – or drown — An interesting little piece that talks a bit about the consequences of relying on a sewer system for drainage.

Montrealers Outraged After Sewage Flood — The type of story which seems to occur every summer in Montreal.

Transport Canada Blames Montreal for L’Acadie Circle Flood — I was able to see this area of Montreal flood over earlier last month during a particularly heavy rainstorm.  The claim by Transport Quebec’s spokesperson that the floods were caused by the 14-foot Meilleur Atlantique collector sewer reaching capacity seems a bit far-fetched. The problem likely lies with inadequate storm drainage connections leading into it.

Peeling Back Pavement to Expose Watery Havens — A great piece about “daylighting” buried waterways, in particular the Cheonggyecheon river in Seoul, Korea. A related NYT blog entry can be found here.

The Wetland Machines of Ayala — An example of one company that’s creating artificial wetlands to help treat wastewater in Israel.

Exboration.com — A new photoblog from Bryan of Toronto who’s been posting some top-notch underground photography.

Bresciaunderground.it — Amazing underground adventuring that’s been going on over the past few years in Northern Italy.