Highway 20 remains closed on Sunday in the Drummondville sector due to a risk of subsidence of the roadway, indicated the Ministère des Transports du Québec (MTQ).
The major highway has been closed in both directions since Saturday afternoon at exit 181, in Centre-du-Québec.
In the press release published on Saturday, the MTQ mentions having taken this decision “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.
Transports Québec is unable to ensure that the lanes will be reopened in time for the return to work on Monday morning. In such a case, the current detour will be maintained.
“We want it to be reopened tomorrow, but what we know is that the work will last all day. [dimanche] and likely continue into the evening,” said Mr. Bertrand.
“We are talking about emergency corrective works which include excavation, backfilling, soil compaction and then asphalting of the roadway,” he described.
Motorists making the Quebec-Montreal connection are invited to take Highway 40. We also suggest consulting the Quebec 511 portal to better plan your route.