Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine Tunnel | One year later, already late

One year after the start of the mega-construction project in the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel, Quebec is already seeing some delays on its schedule. Discussions will take place with the Renouveau-Lafontaine consortium (RLF) to speed up certain work during the winter period.

“We are seeing some delays. That said, there are different things we can do to optimize our activities and we will evaluate all of that. In the spring, we will have a more precise idea of ​​what is coming,” the director of major projects for Greater Montreal at the Ministry of Transport, Martin Giroux, said on Monday on the sidelines of a media visit.

For now, the delay in the construction site will last at least a few weeks. One of the factors put forward is, unsurprisingly, the cessation of work for two weeks this summer due to mold discovered in a segment of the service corridor.

Overall, “a multitude of factors” can explain the delays, according to Mr. Giroux. “When we are late at one stage, it is delayed in the other, like a chain. So, it’s really on production that everything depends and the entrepreneur is working on that,” he cautiously added, suggesting that more work could be carried out during the winter period to make up for the delay.

The office of Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault – the latter was not present on Monday – specified that it will be necessary at all costs to “avoid a postponement of the end of major obstacles”. “We continue to follow the file closely,” briefly commented the director of communications, Maxime Roy. A priori, the mega-project must last until 2026, at least.

65% of walls completed

Nonetheless, the work is progressing “smoothly”, says Antoine Audoynau, construction director at the RLF consortium. To date, 101 wall sections have been concreted out of a total of 156 in the first tube, or approximately 65%. In terms of the ceilings, 5 sections of the vault out of 78 were replaced.

So far, 26 of the 30 evacuation safety areas have been formed and 85% concreted. In the service corridor, wall repair work and replacement of the concrete floor will be completed at the end of this year, says the ministry, which will then replace the electrical systems there.

Outside of the tunnel, “for the slabs, we are at approximately 50% progress,” said Mr. Audoynau. The reconstruction of the roadway on Highway 25 South has already been completed, but not in the north direction. In the Souligny interchange, 60% of the repair of two of the five structures to be renovated has been completed.

“In total, we have a little more than 70,000 m² of slabs which are made, over 146,000 m². To give you an idea, that represents around 20 soccer fields on the surface of road slabs. And all this is done in phases, since the highway must be kept open to traffic,” illustrated Antoine Audoynau.

Both tubes will have to be completely re-typed eventually. “What is certain is that the experience we gain in the first tube will allow us to go faster in the second. We are still talking about an atypical work, so experience and expertise develop gradually,” explained Martin Giroux.

Ridership cut in half

In recent months, approximately 62,000 vehicles have used the La Fontaine tunnel every day, approximately 40,000 towards Montreal and 22,000 towards the South Shore. This figure represents half of the 120,000 journeys which were made there before the work. Every day, the single lane towards the South Shore allows approximately 1,100 vehicles to pass per hour.

“The most difficult peak remains the evening one. To reach the South Shore, it’s about fifty minutes and towards Montreal, it’s relatively better, it’s about fifteen minutes,” indicated the engineer at the Renouveau Lafontaine consortium, Geneviève Campeau.

On the public transport side, 560,000 trips were made during the week aboard the shuttles deployed by the ministry. It is line 61 of the Réseau de transport de Longueuil (RTL) which is doing the best, with growth of 12,550 customers last year, to 16,836 as of September, an increase of 35%.

In total, the shuttle from Boucherville to Promenade Bellerive has had nearly 57,000 users to date, compared to 19,000 for the shuttle from Varennes to Pointe-aux-Trembles and the Port of Montreal.

Quebec also took advantage of Monday to announce that the reserved lane on rue Sherbrooke Est will be extended by 2.5 km in both directions, between avenue Haig and rue Honoré-Beaugrand, over the next few years. weeks.