(Quebec) The Legault government is going back to the drawing board for its project for a third highway link between Quebec and Lévis, and is considering reducing the number of lanes provided for motorists in this tunnel, which was to cost up to 10 billion.
Posted at 12:20 p.m.
“The Minister of Transport is seeing if it takes two more lanes, four more lanes. In total, do we need two lanes, four lanes, six lanes? This is what we are looking at, ”said Prime Minister François Legault on Thursday.
“We will evaluate, we will evaluate. Then, in the coming months, we will be able to give a fairly precise estimate of how much the adjusted project will cost, ”added Mr. Legault, who replied to the parliamentary leader of Québec solidaire Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois.
“Let’s say, there, that there is an opening at Québec solidaire to have at least two lanes for public transport from downtown Quebec to downtown Lévis. We now have to convince them that we also need to have additional lanes for the transport, eventually, of electric cars,” indicated the Premier.
He also pointed out that he was “looking at different scenarios” with the mayor of Quebec, Bruno Marchand, and the mayor of Lévis, Gilles Lehouillier.
The member for Québec solidaire, however, wants to know the cost of the project before the elections. “The elections are in a few months. It is not playing with Air Transat’s money, it is playing with Quebeckers’ money. I ask him how much his third link project will cost Quebec taxpayers, ”denounced Mr. Nadeau-Dubois.
In May 2021, François Legault presented his tunnel project, 8.3 km long, which was to connect Highway 20 near Lévis to the Laurentian highway in Quebec, near the Videotron Center. This project consisted of a two-storey tunnel each with three traffic lanes, including one reserved for electric buses. Between 50,000 and 55,000 vehicles would use it every day.