The headache for motorists on the South Shore of Montreal will increase by several more notches in the coming weeks, with the complete closure of part of Route 132 and its access roads in Brossard.
Posted at 10:18 a.m.
This closure will be in effect during the weekend of November 4 to 7, to allow the deconstruction of the portion of the old Champlain Bridge located directly above the 132.
This work should have taken place two weeks ago, but the company Ponts Jacques-Cartier et Champlain Incorporée (PJCCI), which manages the work, has decided to postpone it in coordination with the Ministry of Transport, which is preparing these days the huge construction site of the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel.
“We are doing the best we can in a very difficult situation, of course”, indicated to The Press Nathalie Lessard, spokesperson for the JCCBI.
For users of route 132, detours will be planned via boulevard Simard, westbound, and via boulevard Rome, eastbound, according to our information. The Samuel-De Champlain Bridge will remain open throughout the weekend.
Work will begin at 11:00 p.m. on Friday, November 4 and must end at 5:00 a.m. on Monday, November 7. This should normally be the last major obstacle related to the deconstruction of the old Champlain Bridge, said Ms.me Lessard.
Between 20 and 25 mechanical shovels will be hard at work throughout the weekend to demolish the section of the old bridge located above the 132, explained for his part Martin Chamberland, of the consortium Signature on the Saint- Laurent, who manages the new bridge.
series of hindrances
This new closure will be added to several others. The most major: Quebec will close, as of Monday, October 31, three of the six lanes of the tunnel until the end of 2025.
Motorists have already had to deal with major hindrances on the weekend of October 21, with a complete closure in the north direction. This weekend, a complete closure is expected in the southbound direction.
The Ministère des Transports (MTQ) also announced Wednesday partial obstructions on the Honoré-Mercier bridge, on Sunday, October 30. Only one lane per direction will be open between Kahnawake and Montreal for slab repair.
These obstacles are in addition to the complete closure of the A25 towards the South Shore, between exit 5 and the entrance to Île Charron, from 11:30 p.m. Friday until 5 a.m. Monday. In addition, all weekend, Souligny Avenue will be closed in both directions, between Dickson and Honoré-Beaugrand streets.
Traffic on the Victoria Bridge also remains limited to one lane due to maintenance work on its structure. Canadian National (CN), which manages the infrastructure, says the work will be completed by the end of November.
In the past few days, the new Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, has repeatedly shown herself to be open to implementing new mitigation measures if necessary, without however specifying exactly what could be in question.
“Find your plan B, because it will be tough next Monday,” she said Tuesday in a press scrum in Quebec, calling on the population to consult the MTQ site regularly.
She says there will be meetings between all departments and cities, after every rush hour starting Monday, to assess what additional measures will be added if needed.
On Wednesday, Premier François Legault did not close the door to the idea of the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal (CCMM), which proposes to ban the use of solo cars during rush hour in the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel to limit traffic congestion during the works.