Ville-marie Expressway exit closed until 2022

The De la Montagne/st-jacques exit of the eastbound Ville-marie Expressway closed to traffic Sunday night, and will remain closed until spring 2022. Now that the five-year reconstruction of the Turcot Interchange is nearing completion, the Quebec Transport Department is undertaking a 10-year renovation of the Ville-marie and Viger tunnels — a project budgeted at more than 100 million. The 5.3-kilometre Ville-marie tunnel, which runs between Guy and St-urbain streets, opened in 1974. Renovations will include modernization of the lighting, fire protection, surveillance and telecommunications systems. Work will also include dismantling of the last paralumes — the grid-like ceilings used in tunnels to partly shade drivers as a transition between sunlight and the dark tunnel. Modern lighting systems have rendered them obsolete. In 2011, a 25-tonne paralume crashed down onto the eastbound Ville-marie Expressway, narrowly missing several cars. While Exit 4 of Route 136 (formerly Highway 720) eastbound, just at the entrance to the tunnel, is closed, drivers are advised to use Exit 6 to St-laurent Boulevard/berri Street. The sidewalk on the west side of de la Montagne Street between St-antoine Street W. and St-jacques will also be closed. The sidewalk on the east side of the street will remain open. Normal traffic on the Ville-marie and Viger tunnels before the COVID-19 pandemic was 118,000 vehicles a day. The Ville-marie tunnel accommodates up to three levels of traffic, with lanes for eastbound vehicles, westbound ones and those exiting to the Samuel de Champlain Bridge and Bonaventure Expressway stacked one above the other. The renovations also include the replacement of massive pumps that keep rainwater and underground water out of the tunnel, as well as repairs to the joints between different sections of the tunnels affected by water infiltration. Future renovations are also in the works for the 1.3-kilometre Viger tunnel from Hotêl-de-ville Avenue to St-andré Street.