The Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel is deteriorating faster than expected and Quebec is forced to begin a “major” repair of this critical artery. In order to carry out this reconstruction, three lanes out of six will be closed for the next three years.
Starting next November, only one traffic “tube” will be open at a time. In the tube that is still open, only one lane will be open towards the South Shore and two towards Montreal. “This configuration will remain in place until [novembre] 2025”, specifies the Ministry of Transport.
“I won’t hide my disappointment at this bad news, but unfortunately we have no choice but to proceed in this way,” commented the Minister of Transport, François Bonnardel.
Every day, approximately 120,000 vehicles use the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel, 13% of which are trucks. This road is the most used for the transport of goods between the South Shore and Montreal.
The delays caused by these obstacles will create a “domino effect” which will increase the price of goods delivered by truck, estimates the president of the Quebec Trucking Association, Marc Cadieux, because “the transport of goods is part of inflation” .
“We’ll have to take our troubles patiently,” he sighs. We saw the construction site of the Turcot interchange. We lived the Champlain Bridge. We were told that we weren’t going to redo the bridge-tunnel at the same time, but here we are. The repair of the metropolitan highway will follow…”
Reduction measures
“Mitigation measures” will be put in place to compensate for the traffic created by this upheaval, promises the ministry.
Reserved lanes for buses, taxis and carpools are being studied. A promotional campaign for incentive parking lots on the South Shore is also in the pipeline.
This new project increases the bill for work already in progress by 900 million dollars. The ministry speaks of a “major structural repair”, a modernization of “operating equipment” and a redevelopment of “service corridors”, in particular.
The tunnel is widely used by customers of the Port of Montreal. “What we find deplorable is the duration of the work,” regrets Renée Larouche, communications for the Port of Montreal. The latest construction schedule was previously scheduled to run until 2024.
“We have asked and will ask our customers again to use our evening beaches so as not to interfere with daytime traffic,” she suggests as mitigation measures.
After this facelift, the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel, opened in 1967, should last another 40 years without major intervention.