MONTREAL -- One thing will be the same as ever this summer, despite the pandemic—Montreal roadwork.
In fact, because of the construction shutdown, road repairs will have to play catch-up, so traffic will be stalled by dozens of projects around town, especially at the Bonaventure expressway, the Champlain Bridge and the Turcot Interchange.
“These are two major areas that we will see major hindrances, lots of orange cones in the next few weeks,” said Sarah Bensadoun of Transport Quebec.
There will also be closures around the Dorval Circle and Cote-de-Liesse, and on the Highway 13 bridge to Laval.
Don’t forget several projects around downtown and on major arteries from Griffintown to Ste. Catherine St. to the Pie-IX Bridge to Laval.
There are also other changes, of course: “More than 300 kilometres of streets for pedestrians and cyclists,” says city spokesman Philippe Sabourin.
“Well, I think if you want to enjoy Montreal this summer, it would be by [walking] or with your bike,” he said.
While roadwork was stalled for nearly two months because of the pandemic, traffic remains lighter than usual, with many staying home. That has experts hoping the impact of all these projects will also be less severe.
As for the biggest project, it’s still not known how the pandemic shutdown will end up delaying it: the rebuild of the Turcot Interchange.
“We are still analyzing the impact of this short-term [delay] that we had between March and early May, but a lot of work has been done to optimize the schedule for the spring and the summer,” said Bensadoun.
There have been weekend blitzes on the Turcot, and another gets underway this weekend.
