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Ile-aux-Tourtes Bridge to reportedly cost Quebec $2 billion

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Every day, more than 80,000 drivers use the Ile-aux-Tourtes bridge despite the headaches and traffic nightmares.

"It's a disaster," said Jason Seguin, who lives in Les Cedres. "Especially now, it's down to two lanes, it makes it even worse."

The current bridge is undergoing repairs, but there are plans to build a new one.

La Presse reports the bridge will come in at a final price tag of $2 billion.

"$2 billion! That's a lot of money. That's about 45 per cent more than what we originally thought it would cost," said Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue Mayor Paola Hawa. "We were looking at few years ago several hundred million."

The Ile-aux-Tourtes connects the Island of Montreal to Vaudreuil-Dorion.

Vaudreuil's mayor, Guy Pilon, said this project should have been completed a decade ago.

"At that point, probably the costs will be around 600 or 700 million dollars. It's not the first time we hear about the Ile-aux-Tourtes," Pilon said.

Instead, the number that's being circulated is about half of what the Champlain bridge cost, but Pilon says the project needs to happen because it's essential for the economy.

"The link between Montreal and Toronto is here on the 40 or the 20," Pilon said. "Around 80 per cent of the commercial exchange between Ontario, Quebec and the United States are going through those two roads."

Hawa says her community is feeling the effects of what's going on with the Ile-aux-Tourtes because people are trying to use Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue as a shortcut.

"It becomes a security issue. We have little streets, one lane wide," said Hawa. "When we've got people clogging up our one lane wide streets to try and to get to one or the other autoroutes even emergency vehicles can't make it through."

Quebec's transport minister refused to comment, but a representative from the transport ministry told CTV News that the contract to build the new bridge will be signed in the spring.

Until then the process is confidential. 

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