The contractor in charge of the Turcot Interchange says about 30 per cent of the work is done, and the project is on track to finish in September 2020.
Sebastien Marcoux of KPH said the challenge to replacing the Turcot is working around the existing structures -- and keeping traffic flowing.
"The main challenge is to take into consideration the existing structures so the whole entire mobility plan, and the way we move people in the interchange is built around the existing structures," said Marcoux.
"I would tell you from a technical standpoint it's a major challenge, a lot of co-ordination."
The KPH Turcot consortium said work to connect the Decarie Expressway to the soon-to-be opened Route 136 will be finished by the end of November.
Once that is ready drivers will head along freshly poured concrete toward the downtown core, and KPH will begin demolishing the eastbound lanes of Highway 720.
Traffic will likely be slower and subject to more congestion while the 720 is demolished, since Route 136 will only have two lanes heading downtown for months to come.
Once the 720 Eastbound is gone, Route 136 will be expanded to four lanes eastbound.
Work will slow down over the winter but will not come to a complete stop, and they say it won’t take long to see results.
“People are going to be driving on a new portion of the new project ever year,” said Marcoux.
Several of the new Turcot ramps will be at ground level, which means landfill has to be moved to form a base for the roadways.
Right now, workers are reinforcing the Ville-Marie Expressway’s supports.
“Pillars are holding both the east and west direction. Eventually, we're demolishing the east direction,” said Marcoux.
The concrete from the demolition work is being recycled as backfill.
“The new highway's going to be on fill so we're building walls on either side of that fill and that highway's going to be lower than the existing one,” he said.
All that work comes with a cost.
“There's going to be additional traffic and what we're expecting is there's going to be an additional impact from what we see today,” said Marcoux.
Residents learn of impact
At a packed Westmount City Hall Wednesday night, residents learned of the impact the work will have on them.
“You hear the tractors, you hear the trucks, them backing up,” said Westmount resident Alexandra Popa.
While Greene Ave. is slated to re-open Monday, there are also proposed alternate routes and 12 to 15 weekends of road closures.
“The fact is there will be some traffic diversion through Greene Ave. What's happening is that people aren't going up Greene Ave. to Dorchester to get downtown. People are cutting through some residential streets,” said resident Anita Chandan.
Residents are also concerned about noise: there will be work from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays, and on weekends they will stop as late as 11 p.m.
“That's quite late. Working construction on weekends? That's pretty hard,” said resident Anita Battigalli.
Transport Quebec said it is necessary work and that it has a policy to monitor noise levels during work hours.
“For example the machinery that is on site, the tools, they have sound barriers on it. They also have limited time,” said spokesperson Sarah Bensadoun.
