Works at the La Fontaine tunnel | Another tougher Wednesday on the roads

Wednesday is now synonymous with heavier congestion in Greater Montreal. And crossings from the South Shore to the island are particularly affected, in the wake of the partial closure of the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel.

Pierre-Andre Normandin
The Press

Henri Ouellette-Vezina
The Press

It took about 35 minutes to cover the 22 kilometers between Beloeil and the entrance to the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel, on Highway 20 westbound.

The approach via Highway 132 was also considerably more difficult. Motorists also took an average of 35 minutes to cross the last 6 kilometers before entering the tunnel.

On Highway 25 North, at the beginning of the Île Charron bridge, a broken down heavy vehicle also caused its share of congestion at the start of the day, the truck having spilled oil on the road. Moreover, the Ministère des Transports (MTQ) continues to recommend avoiding the axis of the tunnel because of the work in the infrastructure which deprives users of three of the six lanes until November 2025.

The other crossings were also fairly busy. There were traffic jams at the Jacques-Cartier, Victoria, Samuel-De Champlain and Honoré-Mercier bridges. The line of cars trying to take Samuel-De Champlain stretched to Highway 30. The latter itself was congested between Highway 10 and Highway 20, in both directions.

As usual, the Metropolitan and Décarie highways were congested at the start of the day. The crossings from Laval to Montreal were also heavily trafficked on Wednesday morning.

The popularity of telework and the return to face-to-face imposed on many workers a few days a week has made Wednesday the busiest day on the roads. Mondays and Fridays, on the other hand, tend to be less busy.

Low interest, but…

Meanwhile, park-and-ride lots on the South Shore remain low, like most of the mitigation measures put in place by the government. On Tuesday, only 38% of the places available on the South Shore were occupied.

However, everything will come with time, warned Tuesday the director general of the Longueuil transport network (RTL), Michel Veilleux. “Gossip will say that the incentive parking lots are not yet full, that they are only at 30%, but imagine if they were at 100% the first morning. […] We would have been told: you have planned poorly, they are already full, ”he illustrated Tuesday morning, in conference in front of an audience of business people, in Saint-Lambert.

He says that the partial closure of the tunnel represents a “beautiful challenge”, but that the measures in place are sufficient. “There have been a lot of criticisms of the project, but I can tell you that in terms of public transit, it was handled very well with the Ministère des Transports. We’ve been working with them for over a year now. The ministry has been proactive,” he defended.