Speed bumps, redesigned intersections, educational radars: Quebec is providing $1.4 million to secure the area around the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel, in Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, where there have been many concerns for nearly two years.
This was confirmed in a press release by the office of Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault on Monday. First, Honoré-Beaugrand Street and Souligny Avenue will be reconfigured, meaning the stop signs there will be replaced by traffic lights. Quebec is also planning to implement one-way streets on these two arteries to restrict car traffic.
On Hochelaga and Curatteau streets, the Ministry of Transport is also committed to changing traffic lights to make them safer, as well as introducing double turning lanes. Not far from there, speed bumps have also started to be installed on several arteries in recent weeks.
An educational photo radar, a light panel displaying a motorist’s speed in real time, will also be installed on Avenue Lebrun. The tool is primarily intended to raise awareness; it does not allow fines to be issued like a traditional photo radar.
In general, signage and markings for pedestrians will be reinforced around the work in the coming months. Several traffic lights will also be synchronized “according to the evolution of traffic conditions,” says Quebec.
“This important investment […] “This responds to a request from the community and will help to limit its repercussions and ensure the safety of citizens in the sector,” said local Anjou–Louis-Riel MP Karine Boivin Roy on Monday.
As reported in our pages last year, the number of motorists and accidents increased as early as 2022 in several residential neighbourhoods around the Jacques-Cartier Bridge, one of the major roads affected by the partial closure of the La Fontaine Tunnel. Since then, many residents have been asking that Quebec and Montreal do more for their safety.
Another year late
The mayor of Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, Pierre Lessard-Blais, says that these calming measures will “increase the safety of motorists, but also allow residents of the area to take a breather in the face of the tunnel work, which is being extended by a year.”
In June, The Press revealed that the megaproject would be at least nearly a year behind schedule. Quebec will not be able to move the work through the second tube this summer, as planned. The new official schedule for this operation has been postponed to spring 2025.
Result: the lifting of road obstructions, in other words the closure of three out of six lanes, will not take place before autumn 2026, whereas this was promised in November 2025. The end of the project could even go further, since the final works, including landscaping, will have to be carried out during 2027.
Several factors weighed in the balance, but it seems in particular that the infrastructure’s ventilation towers are in a much worse state than previously thought and that additional work will be necessary. The work also turned out to be more complex than anticipated during concreting work in the tunnel, which nevertheless remains safe.