Pontiac Depaving and Park Expansion

Over time, we’re reconnecting our Champlain Park to the Champlain Woods to the north.

  1. We started discussing it in 2016.
    [Proposed Pontiac Street Map]
  2. [Pontiac Street with barrier planters, and a hockey net]Pontiac Street was closed off to traffic in September 2017, and big concrete planters were added as decoration and obstacles.
  3. [Skiers Crossing the New Gap in the Fence]

    Skiers crossing the Gap in the Fence to get to Champlain Park

    We cut a hole in the fence in December 2017 to let skiers and other SJAM Winter Trail users through right up to our field-house.
  4. [Pontiac Planter with Street Behind in 2018]Planters were filled with flowers and other growing things in the summer of 2018.
  5. The pavement was cut into squares in September 2019.

    pavement-scoring-20190925_143321.mp4
  6. On October 5th 2019 a group effort to remove most of the pavement, leaving a curb and cycle path, took place under the supervision of Envirocentre. We have some initial photos followed by a detailed story. Envirocentre even made a slide show story of it.
  7. [Pontiac Street on October 13 2019 - Topsoil Ready]The gravel under the street was dug up and replaced with topsoil, as well as the old parking lot gravel behind the fence. The fence too was gone by mid-October 2019.
     
  8. After that, more park improvements, and perhaps a shorter safer path to the park for the students at St. George’s school.

There are several posts related to this topic. If you want to read them, please see https://champlainpark.org/tag/pontiac-park-expansion/