Turcot February 2010

As promised, I'm continuing the thread from that monster trek or two I took in mid February. My first post from last September spoke of the death of Turcot and how the MTQ had not only effectively buffed most of the yards but had fenced off the area and had security patrolling the perimeter and policing the grounds. My most recent visit to the yards didn't convince me that this was letting up anytime soon, however, I was able to get in and around the area to catch some new graff along the train tunnel  and even some older stuff along one of the hidden walls alongside the Hwy 20. Here are my pics including some pans of older stuff from that hidden wall and some other stuff from the walk in along the tracks from St. Henri.

After cutting in through an old fence gate overgrown with vines and frozen vegetation I made my way through the desolate remains of the heart of Turcot`s open and snowy interior. Not much in there at all except for snowy dunes carved by an unforgiving wind.

I walked along a make shift road and then crossed through to the service road that runs along the long stretch of the yards. It was a 3 km hike to the Raphael Motel which was my next destination and there wasn`t much to see. I did, however, come across this gem by Quidam in the middle of this frozen wasteland:

You got to hand it to him, in the middle of nowhere, he gets up. I also came across this old power station hollowed out and left to rot:

(The inscription reads: "Dedicated to Truth & Love R.I.P.")

Nothing else of interest was found until I got to the Raphael Motel a little ways off. You can check pics of that fine and abandoned spot here. I`ll have some more quick flics from the yards soon as Sake and a few others have been busy causing more trouble than they already have been. I`ll have more on CBR and my more recent trek along the tracks through Pt. St. Charles.

Turcot is Killed (Dead)

So it's official folks, Turcot yards have been closed by Transport Quebec. Most access points have been fenced off and private security roams about picking up anyone who trespasses. Since 2003 Transport Quebec (MTQ) has owned the yards, however, up until recently they have not done much with it.

On my way into work the other morning I noticed several crews setting up camp on the service road area just under the Decarie exit. The trailers they had looked like the kind used by graffiti clean up crews. I was passing through this afternoon and noticed that they had buffed all the supports and were working towards the train tunnel area.

Firstly, this seems like a waste of money namely because of the plans we've all been hearing about concerning the redevelopment of the yards in the next few years. Turcot has been a painting area for a little while, why buff it now? Especially if the plan is to redevelop the area? Secondly, buffing the area only makes it a prime target for writers who have the balls to go in and hit up some fresh canvass. I forsee more graff going up there in the near future, even if only some quick throwies.

And this is not the only area buffed out, the MTQ (I assume it is the MTQ, however, Westmount or the borough of Ville-Marie might also be invovled -I am yet to locate something on that) seems to be on a crusade to remove graffiti from the highway system. Under the Ville-Marie expressway from Lucien-Lallier to De Courcelle has been mostly buffed, including the Upper TA Wall area. Again...waste of money? Within 2 days there were already some tags and outlines thrown up. Give it a month and the area is going to be soaked in paint again, as it has been for the last 15 years... And in the typical fashion they buffed only the areas visible from the highway and from the new condo developments across the street, leaving areas that are not visible (lower TA wall and factory as well as some other areas) which begs one to ask what was the real motivation behind the buffing?

Above pics: Upper TA Wall Area

In any case, the idea of Turcot as an open free-range painting area is dead with the choke hold that the MTQ seems to have on the area. The rest of the Ville-Marie expressway still appears to be mostly open (I was walking it just the other day without issue except for a few new fences) and the TA Wall should be back to its former colorful and lustrous state of layered paint in no time. It will be interesting, however, to see just how far the MTQ is going to go with this new program.

Stay posted.