Highway 20 reopened in both directions around 2:00 a.m. Monday in the Drummondville area, according to the Quebec Ministry of Transport (MTQ) on Twitter.
The major road axis had been completely closed on Saturday afternoon at exit 181, in Centre-du-Québec, due to a risk of subsidence of the roadway.
On Sunday evening, while paving of the eastbound lanes continued, the MTQ had allowed westbound traffic.
In the press release published on Saturday, the MTQ mentioned having made the decision to close the highway “preventively” in order to “ensure the safety of road users”.
The spokesman for Transports Quebec, Louis-André Bertrand, clarified that it was “the appearance of three chimneys, therefore holes, near the highway”, which led to the emergency closure of the lanes.
Municipal aqueduct works on a pipe that passes under the highway would be the cause of the appearance of these chimneys in the central reservation and on each side of the tracks, reported Mr. Bertrand.
A detour has been set up in Drummondville from boulevard Foucault, rue Montplaisir, route 122, then route 143. According to the MTQ, a traffic jam was observed extending over four kilometers during of the weekend, in addition to very heavy traffic inside the city of Drummondville.
“We are talking about emergency corrective works which include excavation, backfilling, soil compaction and then asphalting of the roadway,” he described.
Motorists who made the Quebec-Montreal connection were invited to take Highway 40 and consult the Quebec 511 portal to better plan their route.