Redevelopment of the Aquarium du Québec parking lots

Our team has put together a list of the most frequently asked questions about this project. Your answer may already be right here.

If you cannot find the information you are looking for in this FAQ, please email us at aquarium@sepaq.com.

• Why are you expanding the Aquarium parking lot?
  • It's not an expansion, but a redevelopment. In fact, even after the work, Aquarium du Québec - a very popular tourist attraction - will lose 200 parking spaces, a 20% reduction in its current capacity.
    
    This redevelopment is necessitated by the major bridgehead project to be carried out by the Ministère des Transports et de la Mobilité durable du Québec (MTMD), which will permanently deprive the Aquarium of a significant portion of the land used for its parking lot.
• Why not opt for a shuttle system?
  • The fact that the need for a shuttle is spread throughout the year makes the organization of such a system very complex and hardly compatible with a quality experience for Aquarium du Québec's family clientele who often come with baby strollers.
• How many times a year is the parking lot full?
  • According to our estimates, the planned 800 parking spaces will be used to their maximum capacity for more than three months of the year, i.e. just under 100 days, spread over different periods of the year (vacations, breaks, bank holidays, weekends, summer vacation, and the like.).
• Will it be possible to park during the work period?
  • Parking spaces will be available for visitors during the construction period. Depending on whether it's high or low season, motorists will be able to leave their vehicles in the current P2 and P3 car parks.
    
    Managing visits by booking time slots (time-stamped tickets), as was done during the pandemic, enables better control of visitor numbers on the site.
• How does redevelopment promote sustainable mobility?
  • The project involves widening Avenue des Hôtels to provide safe access routes for bicycles and pedestrians, as well as space for municipal buses. This will promote active and public transport, with a view to sustainable mobility.
    
    The parking area will also accommodate 80 bicycles as well as 20 spaces with charging stations for electric vehicles.
• How does redevelopment make the area safer?
  • The widening of Avenue des Hôtels will provide distinct lanes for different users according to their mode of transport (pedestrian, cyclist, motorist, public transit user), which the current configuration does not offer.
    
    A traffic light will also be installed at the end of the highway exit from Pont de Québec (the Québec bridge), to facilitate safe passage for pedestrians and cyclists.
• Will any trees be cut down, and would it have been possible to preserve them?
  • The new multi-storey parking project increases the density of parking spaces while minimizing the footprint. The parking lot must be made more accessible to improve traffic flow as part of MTMD's redevelopment of Avenue des Hôtels and the parking lots, taking into account the highway ramp.
    
    The trees need to be cut back to align the entrance to the parking lot with the highway ramp, where a new traffic light will facilitate safe crossing for pedestrians and bicycles, as well as the flow of traffic and heavy delivery trucks to the Aquarium.
    The new project reduces the cutting area by almost 75% compared to the original project, with 3,000 square metres instead of the original 11,000 square metres slated to be cut.
    
    All in all, including the other work carried out by MTMD, there will be roughly the same number of trees in the area, and over 3,500 additional shrubs, not to mention thousands of perennial and grass plantings.
• Will immediate neighbours suffer visual impacts, either from the height of the parking lot or from the lighting of street lamps?
  • The situation varies according to the density of the forest at the site and the current season, but it should be remembered that the current neighbours' 70-metre-deep woodland will remain untouched. The project maximizes parking density while limiting the footprint to preserve as many trees as possible.
    
    The colour, orientation, and intensity of the lights were chosen to reduce light pollution, in accordance with Sépaq's lighting and light pollution reduction guide.
    
    The current parking lot is already lit. The lights on the second level of the new project will be switched off from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., with a motion detector for safety. The intensity of the lights used on the first level will be reduced by 30% at night.