After a tractor trailer flipped onto its side Thursday morning, the mayor of Verdun borough is calling for a new bridge connection to Nuns' Island.
The truck, which was carrying liquid sugar, was going around a ramp near the Champlain Bridge when it tipped over around 7:30 a.m.
Nobody was hurt but removing the wreckage took hours, all while Transport Quebec restricted traffic, leaving Nuns' Island residents with no option except to wait in a traffic jam.
Verdun Mayor Jean-Francois Parenteau said the cleanup operation, which delayed thousands of motorists throughout the morning, took too long.
"This situation is not acceptable," he said. "We should be able to make something faster than this morning because it's incredible. It was long and, for me, it was not a professional situation.
Parenteau has advocated for a bridge connecting Nuns' Island and Verdun. He pointed out there are only two ways to get on and off Nuns' Island, which can wreak havoc in situations such as that caused by the crash.
"It's a 'B' option, it's so important to have, because there's 20,000 people who live on Nuns' Island and they don't have an option B for when they have emergency cases like this," he said.
Traffic expert Rick Leckner said it's doubtful such a bridge will ever get built and that a better solution would be better communication across the agencies.
"The Transport Quebec and Sureté du Quebec have to sit down and look at a better way to get equipment there, perhaps with a police escort, and make the resposne of other, non-emergency equipment more efficient and more rapid," he said.
