MONTREAL - Transport Quebec has released the final design for the new Turcot interchange.
As expected the interchange will be built much lower to the ground and construction will begin in earnest next summer, to be completed in 2018.
Transport Quebec says the design will be radically different but to laymen it looks very similar to what currently exists.
The tangle of intersecting highways will remain, but the elevated portions will be dropped to just 6 metres above ground.
According to Transport Quebec the current structure, with its 30 m high sections, will actually be very useful in minimizing traffic disruptions while construction is taking place.
"It's a good thing we have these structures so high because we have the room underneath to build the new one and keep the traffic on the existing [roadway]," said project manager Alain Dube.
"The big challenge is to keep the traffic flow."
At the moment five companies are in the running to start building the $3 billion project in 2013.
But the plan is not without its critics. They include UQAM Urban Planning Professor David Hanna.
"The tweaking has been pretty remarkable. I mean they have put in some real bus lanes now. The bad part is that it's still an overbearing expressway. It could have. and should have, been a lot lighter, a lot simpler and a lot cheaper. I would give it a C frankly, a C- minus probably," he said.
More ramp closures
Meanwhile, the existing interchange needs substantial repairs to stay roadworthy, so Friday night at midnight, another ramp will be closed.
The ramp from the 15 North to the Ville Marie Expressway East will be closed until mid-July.
Several ramps through the interchange are already restricted to one lane.
That means that every route to downtown Montreal from the west end, including the Bonaventure Expressway, will be under construction this summer.
The Bonaventure will be reduced to two lanes in each direction for 25 consecutive weeks beginning in mid-May.
