The Lafontaine tunnel toward Montreal has been reopened after three days of repairs.
Specifically, Transport Quebec needed to make sure that the tunnel is able to handle water accumulation before the first snowfall.
Ever since the tunnel was built in 1967 it's had a defect: two slabs are millimetres apart, and that allows water to drip onto the road surface, forcing the province to spend money on salt and ice removal.
"From 1967 there's been water infiltrating the tunnel at this specific location," said Mario St-Pierre of Transport Quebec. "It is not a very large amount of water and it happens only when it is cold."
"It happens when the concrete slabs are contracting and it happens when it's winter and when it is cold. so the colder the winter is the more water will seep into the tunnel."
Crews worked around the clock to improve the drainage system in the tunnel, install new water sensors and complete repairs on a stretch of tunnel damaged this past summer when a truck caught fire.
Lights and wires along a 500-metre stretch of the tunnel had to be replaced at a cost of close to $190,000, paid for by the truck driver's insurance company.
That driver was also fined because he was transporting more propane than is permitted to be brought through a tunnel.
The inbound tunnel was closed at from 11 p.m. Friday Oct. 9 and reopened at 1:30 p.m. Monday Oct. 12. Highways leading to the tunnel were closed as well. Police were on site all weekend directing traffic.
