Two years after the St. Jacques overpass was torn down, city officials made a major step towards the end of one of Montreal’s major traffic nightmares with the installation of the first piece of the new bridge on Saturday.
The pieces were built off site, brought in by truck, and then assembled.
A second piece will be installed before the end of the summer. After that, the road will be paved and supporting wires installed – with the goal of being open to traffic in December.
Residents in NDG have made concessions over the last two years to deal with the absence of the bridge, including taking lengthy detours to get from one end of St. Jacques to the other.
But there’s still some pain to come: the second piece of the bridge will be the one over the entrance of the 15 and the 20 from Decarie. Its installation will require a temporary closure of the entrance for a weekend this coming summer.
The St. Jacques overpass is just part of the multi-billion dollar facelift for the Turcot Interchange.
Officials said the project as a whole is still on track to wrap up by 2020.
