Traffic between the Island of Montreal and the south shore is about to get even more complicated.
Transport Quebec has issued a temporary ban on heavy truck traffic along the Mercier Bridge.
Inspections revealed that guardrails, especially those on the span towards Châteauguay, are compromised.
Transport officials consider that an impact could lead guardrails to give way, sending vehicles overboard, into the St. Larwence River.
"We do more inspections, more on the structure and so on, and we saw that those guard rails need to be reinforced," says Real Gregoire of Transport Quebec.
Work on strengthening the guardrails will begin as soon as possible.
Therefore, as of December 29th, only cars, emergency vehicles, and snow-clearing trucks will be allowed on the Mercier.
Also, the speed of traffic will be limited to 50 kilometres per hour.
Cement reinforcements will to used to strengthen the guardrails and officials do not want to risk the additional stress of heavy trucks on the bridge.
"A lot of the things happen to the structures that even surprise people that were bridge engineers," says Helen Christodoulou, herself a bridge engineer.
She considers that the Mercier has been neglected too long.
Because transport officials do not know how long the work will last, they cannot currently put a time limit on the truck ban.
They will be forced to use other bridges until further notice.
