The demolition of the St. Jacques St. bridge over the Decarie Expressway is finally going to begin, four years after it was first announced and more than three years after it was supposed to take place.
Although preliminary work to prepare for the bridge's destruction began two years ago, for the past month construction crews have been preparing the bridge, and the area underneath it, for the first of two phases of the demolition project.
The preparation work will continue for the next few weekends, with the ramps from Highway 720 West and the 20 East to Decarie North closed from 10 p.m Saturday June 25 until 5 a.m. Monday June 27.
Other construction work takes place this weekend.
On Canada Day weekend, the stretches of Highway 15 that run under the bridge closed overnight on Canada Day weekend.
The following two weekends every lane of the Decarie Expressway, along with multiple other ramps in the Turcot Interchange, will be closed from Friday evening until Monday morning.
Access to the northbound Decarie will be possible from the Sherbrooke St. entrance.
Drivers heading south will not be able to access Decarie from the Metropolitan, although Decarie south will be accessible from Highway 40 eastbound.
Transport Quebec is being blunt and telling drivers not to drive on the Decarie Expressway.
Crews will be working around the clock to destroy the western half of the bridge and lower the debris to trucks that will haul it away.
If the work does not go as smoothly as anticipated the demolition will continue the weekend of July 23rd.
Then, in the fall, the eastern half of the bridge will be taken down, requiring several more weekends of closures.
