The cost of the major repair of the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel now amounts to approximately 2.5 billion, a larger increase than anticipated of 970 million, announced Monday the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility (MTMD). .
This new amount notably includes an increase in the contract of the contractor responsible for the work, Renouveau La Fontaine (RLF), a group made up of Dodin Campenon Bernard SAS, Eurovia Infra and Pomerleau inc.
We must first go back to July 2020 in this file. At the time, the Ministry announced the signing of a $1.142 billion contract with RLF for the design, construction and financing of the repair of the tunnel, a project whose total cost was then estimated at $1.426 billion.
Ultimately, however, the structure turned out to be much more deteriorated than expected, Quebec revealed last fall. The vault, for example, then showed 60% more damage than anticipated, according to what the Minister responsible for Transport at the time, François Bonnardel, had indicated. Result: since October 31, three lanes out of six in the tunnel have been closed to begin major renovations.
At that time, Quebec had undertaken to absorb all the cost overruns, which were then estimated at approximately 900 million. “The revised cost announced today includes the sums required for additional interventions, costs related to the extension of the site and the improved mitigation measures,” however specifies the Ministry in a press release published on Monday.
The work should in theory be completed in 2026. In the office of the Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, it is specified that these cost increases, which were for the most part “widely known”, are necessary “to ensure the safety of users of the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel. “In addition, everywhere around the world, there is an overheating in the middle of the construction and materials”, was justified Monday the press attaché of the minister, Louis-Julien Dufresne.
All this comes as Quebec announced last week that complete night closures of Highway 25 and the tunnel will be necessary this week towards the South Shore, between exit 4 and Île Charron, from Monday to THURSDAY. No lane may therefore be used from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. during this period of time, for work to be carried out there. The same closures were also required for the interchange of highways 20 and 30 between Sunday and Monday.
At the end of January, the Legault government had installed photo radars on the site of the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel, the speed limit seeming to be exceeded by some motorists. About twenty accidents have been recorded since the start of the work, often related to speed.