Motorists in the greater Montreal area should expect another intense summer construction season. Some 51 major construction sites are planned for the territory during the summer.
The Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Geneviève Guilbault, was in the city on Thursday to meet the members of Mobility Montreal, the organization responsible for coordinating construction sites in the metropolitan region. Among them: the City of Montreal, the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), the Port of Montreal, the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal (CCMM) and the Quebec Trucking Association.
During a press scrum following this meeting, the Minister acknowledged that the coordination of work sites between the partners was sometimes complex, but that there were also gaps in the communications made to motorists regarding the obstacles.
However, she promised that over the next few weeks, various measures would make it possible to better transmit this information to motorists. She cited the Mobility Montreal platform where details of the various projects are grouped together, the sending of a newsletter to subscribers and an increased presence of ministry representatives in the media, especially at the dawn of weekends.
“My goal is for people to receive information as passively as possible, without having to go chasing after it and looking for it,” she said. “We want to improve. »
As for the 511 application, Minister Guilbault admitted that it was not perfect. On the other hand, the ministry intends to migrate it to a new system which could make it possible to integrate other sites than those of the ministry. “The IT challenges are high, but we will get there. »
Lots of cones
Of the 51 work sites this summer, 21 are work sites of the Ministère des Transports et de la Mobilité durable (MTMD) and 19 of the City of Montreal.
Among the most important construction sites, we note that of the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine bridge-tunnel, which will continue this summer until November 2025, as will that of the Ville-Marie and Viger tunnels. Work on Highway 40, between the Côte-de-Liesse interchange and Provencher Boulevard, will lead to complete closures in one direction or the other, in the evening, at night and on weekends.
The MTMD will also carry out work on the Île-aux-Tourtes bridge, during which two traffic lanes per direction will be maintained.
For its part, Montreal must rebuild the Jacques-Bizard bridge and carry out infrastructure work on several arteries, in particular on Saint-Antoine, Viger and Jarry streets.
The head of infrastructure on the executive committee of the City of Montreal, Émilie Thuillier, recalled Thursday that new rules would now be imposed on contractors and site managers. Thus, the signaling equipment must be installed only 24 hours before the start of the work and be removed within 24 hours of the end of the work.
She also indicated that the City would hire three more inspectors to ensure compliance with the new rules.
More frequent encounters
Minister Guilbault promised that the members of Mobilité Montréal, who have not had any meetings in recent years, would see each other more regularly in the future. A meeting should take place by the fall, she said.
CCMM President and CEO, Michel Leblanc, was encouraged by the Minister’s desire to make Mobility Montreal meetings more regular. However, he hopes that the necessary efforts will be made to improve not only mobility, but also the fluidity of travel. “Business people are very aware of the difficulty of bringing employees back to the workplace if they feel that as soon as they leave their homes, they are caught in congestion. »
CEO of the Quebec Trucking Association, Marc Cadieux, is also trying to be optimistic, but congestion and the multitude of construction sites in Montreal put truckers off, he said. “We have more and more drivers who refuse to come to work in Montreal. And the costs of operations have increased significantly with the waiting time and the congestion. »
Congestion, added to the increase in wages, is not without effect on the costs of consumer goods, he points out.