Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine Tunnel | Far from the anticipated chaos

And then, this first day of partial closure of the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel? Not so bad, but it’s too early to rejoice, experts say. La Presse takes stock of this not-quite-just foretaste of the next three years.

Henri Ouellette-Vezina
The Press

Frederik-Xavier Duhamel
The Press

The calm before the storm?

A total of 34 minutes. It’s the time it took The Press to drive between Boucherville and Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital, shortly before 8 a.m. A travel time comparable to what was in place before the closure of the south tube in the tunnel.

On the other hand, traffic was more difficult to leave Montreal and go to the South Shore. In this direction on Highway 25, it took nearly 50 minutes in the early morning before crossing the river.

D’ailleurs, aucune mesure d’atténuation des entraves n’a été mise en place par le ministère des Transports sur le réseau autoroutier sur l’île, bien qu’il ne reste plus qu’une seule voie dans le tunnel en direction de la Rive-Sud. L’essentiel des aménagements —dont l’ajout de navettes et une voie réservée— a été implanté sur la Rive-Sud, pour faciliter l’accès à l’île.

Sur l’ensemble du réseau routier, la congestion était modérée lundi. En matinée, la circulation était nettement moins dense qu’à la normale sur la Rive-Sud. Une certaine circulation a été observée sur plusieurs axes névralgiques, comme l’autoroute 25 et le tunnel Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine, ou le pont Samuel-De Champlain. Mais le niveau de congestion était globalement moindre qu’à l’habitude. Malgré quelques accrochages mineurs, tout s’est assez bien déroulé, a rapporté la Sûreté du Québec. Même sur l’axe Décarie, normalement très achalandé, c’était plutôt calme.

Le retour semblait plus difficile en fin d’après-midi dans le tunnel, alors que l’autoroute 25 était congestionnée en direction sud jusqu’à la hauteur du boulevard Yves-Prévost vers 16 h. La circulation était cependant déjà fluide dans cette direction sur le pont Jacques-Cartier vers 17 h.

Catherine Morency, titulaire de la Chaire mobilité à Polytechnique Montréal, n’est pas surprise. « Il y a quelques années, le cabinet du ministre des Transports m’avait demandé ce que les gens feraient si on fermait le tunnel. Je leur avais dit très clairement : si on ferme trois jours, il ne va rien se passer. La stratégie court terme du monde, c’est ce qu’on a vu [lundi] “, she says.

At the Université de Montréal, transport planning expert Pierre Barrieau confirms this. According to him, Monday was “very unrepresentative”, because users chose to telecommute and because because of Halloween, some parents probably took time off. “For me, it’s Wednesday and Thursday that we will have the first traces of what it could look like. For the total, it will take another week or two, ”he says.

Be “more aggressive”

Until then, the government “must realize that we have to be much more aggressive on public transit, carpooling and other modes,” insists Ms.^me Morency. “At the moment, the notion of network is poorly understood. It’s not just a corridor, the problem is everywhere it crosses. Currently, it is as if we put twelve entrance doors in a theater, but only two to exit. »

“The fact of having extraordinary measures, it shows that we have badly planned. It would be time for us to plan all of our networks, including cycling, walking, in an integrated way. […] Everything in the speech is very oriented towards the solo car. There is something very systemic in the way we do not currently understand mobility issues. When we talk about metro extension, it should be an ongoing process, not an exceptional event,” continues Ms.^me Morency.

At UQAM, Florence Junca-Adenot, professor in the urban studies department, agrees.

At Trajectoire Québec, general manager Sarah V. Doyon also calls for caution. “It can take a few days, even a few weeks, before the mess happens. It’s one thing not to go there on October 31st, it’s another to never go through the tunnel again. There are two worlds,” she says, hoping people will “turn to other modes” to “avoid hell.”

This is what Djenann Saint-Dic and Karina Audet did, met at the Radisson terminus when they were returning from work. They chose to leave their cars in an incentive parking lot in Boucherville and take the bus on Monday.

“It went very well,” says M.^me Saint-Dic, whose journey to the city center only took him “five or ten minutes” longer than usual. She plans to do it again on Tuesday. It also went well for M.^me Audet, who says he wants to try other lines before making his choice.

Quebec will adjust as needed

From 6 a.m. on Monday, the Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, visited the employees of the Montreal Integrated Traffic Management Center (CIGC). On the spot, The Press was able to observe that most park-and-ride lots were very unpopular.

M’s office^me Guilbault said Monday that “although the first morning went well, the minister will continue to monitor the situation very closely over the next few days.” “We will not hesitate to adjust quickly to make life easier for users if the situation in the coming days requires it,” noted press officer Louis-Julien Dufresne.

According to Mr. Barrieau, the fact is that the population is currently “overcompensated”. “We have to wait for bad habits to resume. […] Everyone’s home, look what’s going on. But people can’t be like that for three years”, illustrates the specialist, who believes that the first big test “it will be the first snowstorm”.

“The level of congestion we have will increase a lot during the work. With the telework measures that will land, combined with economic growth, inevitably, traffic will go up,” concludes Mr. Barrieau.

Inside the Congestion Monster

Chaque jour, ils sont au cœur du trafic routier. Les employés du Centre intégré de gestion de la circulation de Montréal (CIGC) surveillent quotidiennement l’évolution de la congestion. Rivés à leur écran, ils ont accès à plus de 450 caméras en temps réel, afin de dépêcher des ressources le plus rapidement possible en cas d’accident.

La Presse a passé la matinée sur place lundi, au moment où la fermeture partielle du tunnel Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine s’amorçait.

« Ici, on voit un autobus sur la voie réservée. On va pouvoir le suivre en temps réel. » Assis devant son ordinateur, un employé discute avec la ministre des Transports, Geneviève Guilbault, qui s’est assise à côté de lui. Elle est venue rendre visite au personnel du bureau, pour avoir le pouls de la situation, mais aussi pour « apprendre » comment la machine fonctionne, confie son entourage.

Une vision complète dans l’échangeur Turcot, une autre sur l’autoroute 25, ou sur le pont Jacques-Cartier : les caméras du ministère des Transports sont nombreuses et elles permettent de suivre un véhicule à la trace. Le téléphone sonne. « Quand c’est cette sonnerie-là, ce sont des lignes réservées au tunnel Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine », affirme l’employé en se tournant vers la ministre Guilbault.

Dans cette grande salle rectangulaire et vitrée, c’est plutôt silencieux, à part le bruit de claviers, et quelques discussions ici et là. Tout près, dans une autre salle, des responsables de la Sûreté du Québec (SQ) sont aussi sur place, veillant au grain.

Chacun des employés, concentré sur plusieurs caméras à la fois, est sur le qui-vive. Si un accident survient, tous sont prêts. « Je suis l’ambulance en direct. Elle n’est pas à l’arrêt », lance l’un d’eux, en réaction à une scène de collision. « On dirait que les gens contournent le secteur », ajoute un autre.

Rapidité, efficacité

Cette scène fait partie du quotidien de Frédéric Ducharme, le chef des opérations du CIGC de Montréal, où 5 équipes d’environ 10 personnes sont en rotation, 24 heures sur 24, 7 jours sur 7. « On a deux principaux mandats : assurer la sécurité des gens et faciliter leur mobilité. Notre but, c’est toujours de détecter les situations, d’y affecter les ressources appropriées et de favoriser un rétablissement le plus vite possible […]within 30 minutes,” he explains in an interview.

“Let’s say that we have an accident in the tunnel and that the flow capacity of the section is threatened. If we need to close the tube, I won’t wait until someone is there to make an assessment,” illustrates Mr. Ducharme.

For Frédéric Ducharme, the strength of these smart cameras is that the majority of them, around 95%, overlap in real time.

“If I have a camera that shows congestion and I see a curve in the road, I’ll have another camera further away. It becomes easier to identify the cause of an accident than if a camera is all alone in the field, with trees that hide, where you only see the traffic. We would then have to send a patrol to find out what is going on. There, we know which units can react, ”he continues.

An evolution over time

More than 450 cameras is a lot, but it hasn’t always been the case, recalls the head of operations, who arrived in 2002. “At the time, the MTQ already had an office that managed traffic at the start of the 1990s on Crémazie. There were about 40 cameras and eight variable message signs. We were then mainly watching what is called the horseshoe: the Décarie highway, highway 25 and 40 between the two, with the 720 and the Ville-Marie tunnel. Then, over the road projects, we saw an increase, ”he reasons.

Today, there are four CIGCs across Quebec; that of Montreal occupies approximately 55% of the resources. Another large center is located in Quebec, and covers the entire region going east and north. Two other headquarters have also been in place for several years, in Trois-Rivières and Gatineau. The latter covers the Outaouais, but also Abitibi-Témiscamingue and Lanaudière.

The partial closure of the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel is certainly “unprecedented”, but it happens in a particular context, believes Frédéric Ducharme. “Since the opening of the Olivier-Charbonneau bridge on the 25, we have noticed almost constant traffic from 5:30 a.m. until 7 p.m. in the evening. Previously, we were only talking about peak periods. It’s really heavy in a constant way,” he said.

“Indeed, there, it is unprecedented”, continues the framework of the Ministry. “It’s going to be closed for three years and it’s a two-way tube, whereas before, we closed a whole direction. People then said to themselves: I can’t pass, I’m going to go around. But there, many people will say to themselves that it will pass anyway. And they will continue to go there, despite the fact that people are encouraged to go elsewhere or find alternative solutions,” concludes Mr. Ducharme.

QS wants to bet on free public transport

Charles Lecavalier
The Press

Québec solidaire proposes to establish free public transport between the South Shore and Montreal for the duration of the repair work on the Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine tunnel, as well as the establishment of a reserved lane for carpooling and buses on the Jacques Cartier Bridge.

“If we want to be able to circulate the same number of people with infrastructure that has a reduced capacity, we must increase the number of people per vehicle. It goes through a developed offer, and an improved tariff offer, ”says Quebec Solidarity MP Etienne Grandmont in an interview.

Former executive director of Accès transports viables and specialist in public transit, Mr. Grandmont, elected in the riding of Taschereau, would like to meet the Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, to present his plan.

It proposes to make public transit between the South Shore and Montreal free, immediately and for the entire duration of the work, and to reduce the price of transit passes by 50% throughout the Longueuil agglomeration.

The objective: “relieve the pressure” in the entire road network of the sector. QS deems it necessary to bet on the price of transit passes, since residents of the South Shore will still have to continue paying for their cars.

The cost of public transport is therefore added to the payment for the car. QS estimates that this measure would cost the State 200 million, which is not much, says Mr. Grandmont, when you consider the total cost of the tunnel works.

Reserved lane

He also suggests creating a reserved lane for public transit and carpooling on the Jacques-Cartier Bridge. Then, in the longer term, work with transport companies to “develop supply and frequency”. “You can’t increase the number of trains and ferries in the short term, but if you can maximize frequency to increase capacity,” he said.

Mr. Grandmont is very critical of the CAQ, which spent a lot more time “obsessing” on the third link between Quebec and Lévis than preparing for the tunnel work. He also points out that the lack of meetings of the Mobility Montreal committee in recent years demonstrates a “lack of leadership”.

However, he believes that with his proposals, society will be able to gain in the long term “if people realize that public transit works and they decide to sell one of their cars”.

The elected official, who succeeds Catherine Dorion in her riding of Quebec, hopes that certain solutions, such as the establishment of a reserved lane on the Jacques-Cartier bridge, could become permanent. “We have three years to change people’s habits. In behavior change mechanisms, we are in the pay zone. If we succeed, that means we won’t come back with the same offers, the same motorway capacity [en maintenant] reserved lanes for public transit and carpooling,” he explained.