The St. Patrick’s Day parade will force major closures on Boulevard de Maisonneuve and the Ville-Marie highway this Sunday. René-Lévesque Boulevard, the Île-aux-Tourtes bridge and the Laviolette bridge, between Trois-Rivières and Bécancour, also risk being congested.
This was indicated Thursday by Mobilité Montréal, the committee responsible for coordinating major obstacles to traffic in the metropolitan region and its surroundings.
On the island of Montreal, first, the holding of the St. Patrick’s Day parade will force the complete closure of Boulevard de Maisonneuve, between rue du Fort and rue Jeanne-Mance, over a distance of a little more than two kilometers . The obstruction will be in effect all day, between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.
The event will also result in the partial closure of two of the three lanes of exit 3 of the Ville-Marie highway eastbound, still between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Sunday.
Mobilité Montréal specifies on this subject that the left and right turn lanes will remain available to reach René-Lévesque Boulevard. “Movement straight towards rue Saint-Marc will not be possible since the street will be closed for the assembly of the allegorical floats,” recalls the committee.
On Saturday, René-Lévesque Boulevard itself also risks being congested, since three out of four lanes will also have to be partially closed between De Bleury and Jeanne-Mance streets, all between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. due to municipal works.
In the west, a bridge to avoid
It will also be necessary to avoid the Île-aux-Tourtes bridge area as much as possible this weekend. Westbound, Highway 40 will be completely blocked throughout the weekend between exit 41 in Senneville (and the entrance to Saint-Charles Avenue in Vaudreuil-Dorion.
Towards the east, traffic will be interrupted between exit 35 in Vaudreuil-Dorion and the entrance from Boulevard des Anciens-Combattants in Senneville. In both cases, detours will be in place, but travel may be difficult, especially at the start and end of the day.
CARD PROVIDED BY MOBILITÉ MONTRÉAL
The Île-aux-Tourtes bridge, which is still undergoing major repairs, will return to its temporary configuration as of Monday at 5 a.m., i.e. two lanes towards Vaudreuil-Dorion and another towards Montreal.
Finally, in Mauricie–Centre-du-Québec, we will have to remove two of the four lanes of the Laviolette bridge, which is also undergoing a major makeover. The infrastructure will therefore only have one lane per direction from Friday evening to Monday morning.
Quebec also invites users coming from Montreal or Quebec “to plan their trips accordingly if they wish to go from one side of the St. Lawrence River to the other.” Highways 20 or 40 should then be favored.
Notice to users of the Réseau express métropolitain (REM): the latter will exceptionally only be available from 7:30 a.m. this Saturday, due to a systems update. Shuttles will therefore be available between 5:30 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. to provide the bus link between Brossard and Central Station stations.