While in Toronto this past weekend, I managed to take a (very) quick dip down into an overflow section of the Garrison sewer system. Thanks to Michael, Jon, Jeremy and Bryan for the short but sweet tour. I plan on setting aside an entire weekend in the near future to be able to see more of what this historic system has to offer.
I need to get back into the habit of writing and posting here again. I think a combination of things diminished my motivation a little bit over the past month or so, but I can feel that changing. I just need to iron out a few more creative kinks and I’ll be back at it again.
In the meantime, another photo taken inside one of the driest stretches of sewer in Montreal. This stretch acts as an overflow between the Decarie-Raimbault and Meilleur-Atlantique collectors, though I think I’d need one of the city’s engineers to explain to me how and when sewage actually gets through its three floodgates.
What is clear is that the air inside this stretch isn’t so good. It’s only about 15 feet underground, but I guess that without a steady flow of water, good airflow can be a problem. It seemed alright during the first trip, but after we returned a few days later it was noticeably worse. My guess is that we had unleashed a good deal of noxious gasses during the first trip by walking through some particularly mucky sections. Both manhole covers leading into this little conduit have large slots through them and are designed to allow as much air to escape as possible. A Google Street view reveals that they have ‘ventilation’ stamped into them.
For whatever reason, this one’s also full of old credit and bank cards. No gold coins or wallets or anything fancy like that. Just crummy plastic cards that are well past their expiration date.
I Finally got my camera and lens back in working order. Well, more or less. There are still a couple of minor problems, but at least it still takes pictures which is more than I thought it would ever do after it fell in the water. This was taken last night inside an inspection shaft for the island of Montreal’s interceptor network. The sewer at the bottom is roughly six storeys below grade and runs directly into the island’s wastewater treatment plant. Put another way: it’s nothing we’d ever dare try and wade through. Besides, these shafts are probably the most interesting thing about the system.
Oh yeah, and a proper update’s coming soon.
For the past couple of years now, I’ve been looking for ways to get inside the sewers found within a northern portion of the island of Montreal. Actually, that statement is a bit misleading since it hasn’t exactly been a high priority.
Covering the areas of Ville St. Laurent, Ahunstic-Cartierville and the Town of Mont Royal, my view towards these sewers was somewhat indifferent. I knew that they were often large (up to 15 feet in diameter), but because they consisted of long stretches and were built a relatively short time ago, I had assumed that they would be quite boring and repetitive. Maybe even duller than the industrial parks and suburbs that they pass beneath.
These were always the ones I’d get to once I finished exploring more interesting things, but nevertheless I would occasionally find myself looking for ways to access some portion of it. I never had much luck until just recently.
I’ve been asked a number of times if I’ve ever come across anything underground in Montreal that’s surprised me. I never really quite know what to say since most of what I see is fairly predictable. It’s mostly pipes and chambers of varying sizes, constructed out of either concrete, brick or occasionally metal. I haven’t (yet) come across any dead bodies, pirate ships or gold coins — although I did find an old wallet once. What surprises do exist usually aren’t worth mentioning; a section that abruptly ends or a stretch that gets larger in diameter when you were expecting it to get smaller. Not exactly the sort of stuff that inspires answers people are hoping to hear.
Occasionally, though, I do come across things that I’d consider to be quite out of the ordinary and this entry involves one such example.
Here’s a little quote that I discovered the other day that I’m quite fond of. Taken from the book City A-Z, which conveniently enough, can be browsed through online.
The sewers are the hidden underground beyond time. Unlike the carefully counted, quantified, rationalized into the time-space orders of the above-ground city, the sewers are the randomness of what is left over. These are mythic bowels of the city, repository of unacknowledged histories. This is where all sorts of family dirt ends up.
*Insert obligatory “sorry for the lack up updates” statement here*
A fresh post is coming up tomorrow and it’ll be far better than this one, I promise.
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