A group of Kirkland citizens who one would expect to be cheering plans for a new urban boulevard in the West Island are, in fact, ho-hum about the recent announcement.

Homeowners on Henri Daoust St. in Kirkland say the timing of the announcement that the province has earmarked $60 million for a new urban boulevard west of St. Charles Blvd., has left them skeptical that the boulevard will ever be built.

The announcement that the provincial government and the city of Montreal plan to develop the provincial right-of-way set aside years ago for the extension of Highway 440, was made last Tuesday, the day before the provincial election call.

“We’ve seen this before,” said Salvatore D’Urso, a Henri Daoust St. resident of 31 years.

“In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Sam Elkas (a former Kirkland mayor, who went on to be elected provincially as a Liberal) told us we would have it (the urban boulevard) within four years,” D’Urso recalled. “It never happened.”

With Liberals seeking re-election in the Sept. 4 provincial vote and municipal elections slated for 2013, D’Urso said, he and other long-time Henri Daoust St. residents are not expecting this time will be any different.

“It looks like a big ‘if,’ ” said D’Urso. “There was no signed agreement, no timetable for the work. There were few details.”

Henri Daoust St. residents have long seen the urban boulevard as a way to reduce the number of cars from using their street to bypass traffic congestion on St. Charles Blvd. A traffic study in 2011 found more than 8,000 cars a day — well above the 1,500 a day recommended for streets of that size — travel it daily.

Meanwhile, D’Urso said, the traffic has worsened as more houses have been built in western Pierrefonds and last December, the town of Kirkland removed traffic signs that had prohibited left-turns from Henri Daoust St. onto Brunswick Blvd.