Parking lot P15 is a central hub for NCC’s service offerings in Gatineau Park’s Meech Creek Valley sector. Relocating the lot 1 km away from its previous location improves sustainability, enhances recreational opportunities and protects an important cultural landscape.
Impact of work
Parking lot P15 has opened in its new location in November 2023. The remaining work will resume in spring 2024.
Benefits of the new P15 location
Parking lot P15 has been moved 1 km northward on Cross Loop Road, south of the Cafferty Road intersection. The new location, with its sustainable gravel surface, has several benefits:
- Year-round use
- Easily accessible from the highway exit
- Located 500 m from a Transcollines public transit stop
- Flexible starting point for many different recreational trail activities such as hiking and mountain biking in summer and snowshoeing, snow biking and hiking on Cross Loop Road in winter
- Reduces the visual impact of vehicles on the Meech Creek Valley landscape
In the medium term, we expect trail connectivity to improve in this sector, resulting in several interesting loop circuits.
Issues with the previous P15 location
Parking lot P15 was in a field approximately 1 km away from the intersection of Cross Loop Road and Cafferty Road in Chelsea. It was only open in winter, when the ground was completely frozen.
To ensure that vehicles didn’t sink into the mud, this parking lot closed as soon as the ground began to soften up. Consequently, winter trails in this sector would close almost two weeks earlier than trails in the rest of Gatineau Park.