The Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, confirms the postponement by one year of the end of work on the Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine tunnel, linking Montreal to Longueuil, in the East.
“For the moment, we are in the fall of 2026 and we hope, indeed, that everything goes well,” commented the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Development, when questioned on this subject, Monday, as part of a press conference on the safety of road workers.
She hastened to add that “you can never predict the unexpected”, especially since road and transport infrastructure has been particularly poorly maintained in recent years.
“We live with an asset maintenance deficit which is so significant in Quebec,” she exclaimed.
She attributes the one-year delay in completing the tunnel work to three factors: first, the work is “more complex than expected in the tube”, since it is necessary to re-tunnel an existing tunnel. Then there are the ventilation towers that need to be changed. Then there were risks to the health and safety of workers on site which caused some delays.
Are we expecting more surprises, since businesses and workers have already seen infrastructure degrade further than they anticipated?
“For the moment, what we are being told is that we should be able to meet the deadline,” replied the minister.
There will be some completion work after the fall of 2026, until 2027, but the minister assures that this will have nothing to do with the current work and that it will be “small work to be finalized”, causing only occasional obstacles. “At least all six lanes will be open,” she said.