Motorists can expect traffic problems on the Turcot Interchange over the weekend, as Transport Quebec closes two access ramps for maintenance
Both are access ramps to the northbound lanes of highway 15.
From Friday at 11 p.m. to Monday at 5 a.m., drivers trying to get from highway 20 on to highway 15 will have to take the 20 all the way to Angrignon, then double back along the 20 eastbound on to the 15.
Overnight Saturday, there will be a second closure – that of the 15 north ramp off the Ville-Marie expressway.
Transport Quebec says the closures are for the purpose of routine maintenance.
However, McGill Engineering Professor Saeed Mirza believes the weekend repairs are likely because of extensive structural deterioration.
He regularly takes students to the Turcot interchange to show them what a crumbling bridge structure looks like.
"What they are saying without saying is that there's some risk involved here," says Mirza.
He thinks transport officials are trying to repair the structure as much as possible so that it might last another six or seven years.
Though the government is promising a new interchange by 2017, some observers like Mirza believe patchwork repairs could go on well beyond that.
The maintenance budget for the Turcot has grown from about $20 million annually to what could be $60 million dollars this year.
