More traffic nightmares coming in December
It will be at least two Christmas seasons of hell for anyone who has to drive west out of the downtown core.
In what has become an annual tradition, Transport Quebec invited reporters to its head office downtown on René Lévesque Blvd. on Thursday to reveal the latest closures to affect the spaghetti network of roads in the city ’s core. The impact will be severe and long lasting.
“Motorists will have to rethink their route,” said KPH Turcot spokesperson Sylvie Gervais. “At the moment, public transit is not just an option. I think it’s a necessity.”
At $3.7 billion, the Turcot is the most expensive roadwork project in the province’s history. It involves demolishing and rebuilding the intersecting network of highways 15 and 20, and the Décarie and Ville-Marie expressways in the centre of the city. The work is being done by a consortium of firms called KPHTurcot, which was awarded the contract by Transport Quebec. Used by 300,000 motorists daily, Turcot is the province’s busiest stretch of roads.
Major closures will affect the westbound Ville-Marie, the Décarie Expressway, and Highway 15 near Verdun. The closures will begin mostly in mid-December and last into 2019. Transport Quebec would not commit to a date for when the portions of the highway will be reopened.
THE VILLE-MARIE EXPRESSWAY
Starting in mid-December, the two busiest entrances to the westbound Ville-Marie will be closed. The Fort St. and the Lucien L’Allier St. entrances will be closed until the expressway is rebuilt. Motorists will be detoured to the already heavily congested entrance on St-Antoine St. near Hotel-deVille Ave. and a new temporary entrance at Rose-de-Lima St. at St-Antoine.
The closure is necessary because the westbound Ville-Marie will be demolished and replaced. While that work is being done, all westbound traffic will be diverted to the eastbound expressway starting near the Ville-Marie tunnel, and there will be two lanes of traffic in each direction until the intersection with the Décarie Expressway. Westbound motorists will get a bonus third lane just west of Rosede-Lima.
If you think driving downtown will be easier on weekends, well, you’re only half right. Crews will completely close the Ville-Marie for about half the weekends over the span of a year to demolish the old westbound part of the highway.
For Notre-Dame-de-Grâce and Westmount residents, the StJacques St. exit off the Ville-Marie near the MUHC superhospital will be closed. Accessing the Champlain Bridge from the Ville-Marie will be impossible, as the Highway 15 south entrance will be closed.
DÉCARIE EXPRESSWAY
Already a scene of major gridlock, especially in the morning, the south end of the Décarie is about to get worse for anyone using it to get east or west.
Drivers heading to Highway 20 west or the Ville-Marie will have to use the left two lanes of the Décarie. Those heading west will have to first go east to St-Rémi St., and then double back on some temporary roads to get to the new Pullman Blvd. Once there, they will be merging with all the traffic detoured off Highway 15 North, because that highway’s exit for Highway 20 west will also be closed. The two lanes of traffic will merge into one — a manoeuvre Transport Quebec recognizes could cause major gridlock.
Motorists heading to the VilleMarie will have a one-lane access, as is the case currently, but they may get caught in the traffic caused by those trying to get to the westbound Highway 20.
Motorists heading to the Champlain Bridge or Verdun from Décarie will find no change in how they access Highway 15 south.
HIGHWAY 15
The De La Vérendrye Blvd. entrance to southbound Highway 15 will be closed until the project’s completion in 2020. The access to Highway 20 west will remain closed and the detour route, put in place in September, will remain.
HIGHWAY 20 IN N.D.G./ LASALLE
There is some good news for those driving in the western most part of the project.
It will be easier to exit at Angrignon Blvd. from Highway 20 West. The exit will be on the right-hand side, which Transport Quebec acknowledged is “more natural” than the old configuration that had motorists driving in the left lane to get to the exit.
The Angrignon Blvd. entrance to Highway 20 East will also be reworked.
The Notre-Dame St. entrance to Highway 20 West will be closed.
Planners say work on the Turcot Interchange is about half done, and this could be the worst year for traffic disruptions. When the next phase of work is done, there should be four lanes in each direction on the Ville-Marie again. Traffic capacity in the interchange will remain as it was before the project began.