Traffic intensifies as it approaches the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel, as motorists waited up to 70 minutes on the island of Montreal to enter the tunnel heading for the South Shore on Thursday morning. The Ministry of Transport still considers that the waiting times respect the forecasts.
Posted at 9:12
Thursday morning, traffic remains passable on the approach to the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel. It takes about forty minutes to cross the 7 kilometers that separate the Anjou interchange from the tunnel, a slight slowdown since the beginning of the week. In the opposite direction, it’s less than 20 minutes of waiting to cross the 22 kilometers between Beloeil and the tunnel.
“Since yesterday at the end of the day, we are at 40 minutes. That’s about the time we simulated [en direction sud], explains Sarah Bensadoun, spokesperson for the MTQ. It was estimated that the travel time could be up to four times longer. Right now, that’s exactly what we had planned. »
However, from Highway 40 from the east of the island of Montreal, traffic jams are more noticeable. “This morning, we had a few peaks at 70 minutes,” notes Sarah Bensadoun.
Since Monday, only three of the six lanes are accessible in the tunnel, and this, until 2025. The MTQ has also observed an increase in public transport users, particularly in park-and-ride lots, the metro and the river shuttle.
As since the beginning of the week, crossings from the South Shore to Montreal are relatively fluid. Thursday morning, there were few traffic jams near the Jacques-Cartier, Victoria and Samuel-De Champlain bridges.
It is always on the island that the traffic is more painful. Congestion on Autoroute 40 westbound extends from the Anjou interchange to Décarie. Highway 15 itself is heavily congested northbound, from the Sud-Ouest borough to the Métropolitaine.
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