It will once again be necessary to plan for a busy summer on the roads of Greater Montreal, with no less than 51 major construction sites. Speaking of a “communication challenge”, the Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, promises that this year, the Mobility Montreal coordination body will meet more often.
“We can do better for the next few years. […] We are going to be better in 2024. This is the commitment I am making today, ”said the minister Thursday in a press scrum, at the end of a meeting with the partners of Mobility Montreal. “We want to reproduce these meetings with a certain regularity,” she said, without giving more details.
However, you will have to see it before you believe it. In October 2022, The Press reported that Mobilité Montréal, which coordinates all the work sites in the metropolitan region, has had only one meeting in the last five years. Sources then denounced the lack of leadership at the head of the organization.
For years to come, argues Mme Guilbault, the deal will change. “We will try to improve the exchange of information even more, with the inclusion of all the partners concerned in this planning work,” she promised. “We are already going to start sharing information on the planning for the next construction season in 2024,” she also mentioned.
On site, the president of the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal (CCMM), Michel Leblanc, welcomed the approach, speaking of a “need for increased coordination” in the region.
We need to meet on a regular basis. We will not transform the situation in a few weeks to make it fluid. On the other hand, with the partners, we can influence the government so that there are more decisions to improve this fluidity.
Michel Leblanc, President of the CCMM
An idea of the construction sites
Of the 51 major projects announced on Thursday, 21 will fall under the Ministry of Transport this year and 19 from the City of Montreal. The rest comes mainly from other players such as the City of Longueuil, exo, the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) or the Canadian National (CN).
“We are in a context where, in 2023, many motorways reach a certain stage of life where we have no choice but to maintain to avoid emergency situations where we are forced to close in disaster” , argued M.me Guilbault. The concern, she says, is to “find a balance” between work and “a minimum of mobility, visual comfort”.
The summer promises to be busy: already, at the end of May, the Ministry of Transport had announced the total closure of Highway 40 East for the entire summer. The artery’s concrete pavement must be completely rebuilt between the Morgan Boulevard sector in Baie-d’Urfé and the Saint-Charles Boulevard sector in Kirkland, where approximately 110,000 vehicles pass through every day.
On the Île aux Tourtes bridge, only two lanes will be maintained in each direction throughout the summer. However, three lanes will be maintained in the direction of the tip. A temporary reserved lane will also be set up during the work on Autoroute 40 in each direction upstream of the bridge. In particular, it will be reserved for buses, taxis and carpooling.
Downtown, the repair of the Ville-Marie and Viger tunnels will continue to cause many headaches for motorists all summer long. In the case of the Ville-Marie expressway, the repair of the overpasses has been underway since February 12. This project should last until the fall of 2026.
Several other major construction sites are likely to cause congestion, in particular in the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel, on the Honoré-Mercier bridge or on highways 15, 13, 520 and 20, among others.
24 hours to handle signage
Montreal also announced Thursday that the maximum period of 24 hours to install and dismantle the signage of a construction site, which had been mentioned at the Summit of the construction sites, will come into force “over the next few weeks”. The administration is targeting the end of June for the application of the measure.
The staff of the Mobility Squad will also be “improved by the end of the month”, with in particular three new inspectors responsible for enforcing these measures. All the boroughs will be affected, but “special attention” will be given to the city center, at the dawn of such a busy tourist season.
“We try to do the work at the right time, in the right place. Yes, it has major impacts, but that’s why we’re trying to find new solutions,” said the head of infrastructure on the executive committee, Émilie Thuillier.