Turcot: the most difficult starts this weekend

Photo Chantal Poirier

Matthew Payen

Wednesday, 6 December 2017 13:16

UPDATE
Wednesday, 6 December 2017 13:16

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The most difficult period for motorists driving on the Turcot interchange begins Friday evening, including weekends, during which three-quarters of the ramps of the interchange will be closed.

“We encourage people to avoid this area at that time,” says the director of the mobility of KPH Turcot, Sylvie Gervais, on the occasion of a presentation to the media of the magnitude of the change of phase which begins at the end of the week with the dismantling of the autoroute 720 West.

The larger difficulties will arise for 20 to 25 weekends until the end of the spring 2018 as several straps of the interchange will be closed as and.

Thus, the link east and west between the city centre and Turcot will be closed during a dozen weekends.

Worse, the westbound direction between the Turcot and the heat exchanger St-Pierre will also be blocked for 6 or 7 weekends, which will require motorists wishing to travel to the airport from the city centre, take the Bonaventure expressway and highway 15 North, back to highway 40 West, then drive down on highway 13. And this will be the case during the end of next week.

At the height of the dismantling work, nine of the twelve ramps of the interchange will be closed. This will happen during two or three weekends.

Work supervisors rely on these closures to advance faster with the work.

In the week

During the week, the situation will not be much more simple. Even if the axis between the city centre and Turcot will remain open thanks to a transfer of traffic after the Ville-Marie tunnel to the new route 136 in the opposite direction, the entrances to The Fort and Lucien-L’allier will be closed, forcing users to pass through the entrance to City hall, or by a new ramp temporary access, located in rue Rose-de-Lima.

The department of Transport warns that the closures of the east-west axis of the heat exchanger will stop at the end of the next spring, but will resume then at the end of the summer and in the fall of 2018.

The end of the mégachantier is still scheduled for 2020.