Despite a fire in a moving vehicle which forced the closure of the southbound Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel on Friday, traffic can now resume.
Posted at 12:10 p.m.
Updated at 7:42 p.m.
Traffic resumed around 7:15 p.m. in the southbound tunnel, said Louis-André Bertrand, spokesperson for the Ministry of Transport (MTQ). The Quebec511 website. info now indicates that the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel is open.
The event in question occurred around 6:30 a.m., at the start of the day, at kilometer 2 of the tunnel. It was closed in the south direction by the Sûreté du Québec, the time to secure the scene.
Several vehicles had to be temporarily evacuated, but no one was injured. Around 8 a.m., the fire was declared under control by firefighters.
Despite this, the tunnel remained closed in this direction until 7:15 p.m. Friday, due to checks on the condition of the structure carried out by the Ministère des Transports du Québec (MTQ), as required by protocol.
“The inspection ended a little before 5 p.m.,” says Bertrand. Since then, MTQ teams have been busy cleaning up the scene.
A first reopening time had first been set for 3 p.m., but was pushed back to 6 p.m. in the early afternoon, then to 7 p.m.
With the collaboration of Lila Dussault, The Press