The leaves will be changing colour and the motorists will be sitting in traffic this autumn, as Transport Quebec revealed numerous road closures scheduled for the season on Friday.

“Fall 2017 will be quite busy as we’ll be working on different (projects),” said Transport Quebec spokesperson Sarah Bensadoun. “We’re working on Highway 25, Turcot, St-Pierre Interchange, Champlain for the building of the new bridge. Also the 720 since we’ll be covering the whole area.”

Among the major closures will be access to the 20 West from the 15 North, which will close in mid-September.

“If you are on the South Shore and would like to go to the airport or the West Island, this access will be closed,” said Bensadoun. “You have two options. The first one is not one we recommend because it’s already busy.”

That option is to exit at Cote-St-Luc Rd. to access the 15 South on the other side. Bensadoun said motorists from Cote-St-Luc and NDG who already use that route to access Decarie would be slowed down by people using it as a detour. Instead, she said people coming from the South Shore should exit at De La Verendrye.

While Bensadoun said half the work on the new Turcot Interchange has been completed, major parts of the project are still yet to be completed and will involve closures starting in mid-November.

Among the most notable closure is the St-Jacques exit off the Ville Marie West. At the same time, work will begin on dismantling the 720 West.

“That means we will have to transfer traffic from downtown to the West Island,” said Bensadoun. “We will have to transfer traffic on 136 East. So both directions will be used at the same time.”

The city's highways are not the only subject of closures. Roughly a dozen major roadwork sites are set get underway between September and December with partial or total closures coming to Peel, Rene-Levesque, Notre-Dame, the Lafontaine Tunnel, Cote-St-Luc Rd., and many others. 

Bensadoun urged commuters to use public transport to both avoid and alleviate congestion. The STM has promised more express buses, particularly in the South West sector, as well as more trains on the metro's Green line. 

“It’s necessary to use public transit… because it will be particularly busy,” she said.

She also noted drivers shouldn’t rely on their GPS for directions but to pay attention to detour signs.

For a map detailing all the scheduled closures, click here.