Traffic Woes in 2018

Traffic planners advise motorists to stay abreast of the closures by consulting the project’s website or using Waze or Google Maps, which will be updated with the road closures.
Our first meting of 2018 will be on the 14, if the hotel confirms our proposed meeting dates. Lots of time to figure out how the heck we are all going to actually get to our hotel!By all accounts, traffic and detours will be even worse in 2018, and we all know how bad it was in 2017.

The Turcot Sector will be the worst, of course. If you have to get through this disaster zone, be sure to consult www.turcot.gouv.qc.ca before you leave home.

This site will show the construction sites on the island: http://www.quebec511.info/fr/Carte/Default.aspx

It is expected that René-Lévesque will be heavily used as an alternate, so keep that in mind also.

 

Read more from the Montreal Gazette below

No Turcot relief until middle or end of 2019

Gridlock expected to be the norm for drivers in much of downtown core

Expect regular traffic jams downtown, especially during the weekends for roughly the next two years.

That was the take-home message from traffic planners who met reporters Wednesday to brief them again about upcoming road closures in the Turcot Interchange, used by 300,000 motorists daily. And they were more clear about an end date for the work to demolish and rebuild the expressway: midto late 2019, meaning nearly two years of traffic chaos slated for the downtown core.

Starting Monday, the westbound Ville-Marie Expressway will be completely closed, including the entrances from Fort and Lucien L’Allier Sts. Westbound traffic will be diverted to the eastbound side, and the only two access points to those lanes will be on Hotel-deVille Ave. near city hall (which can be accessed from both St-Antoine St. and Viger Ave.), and a temporary access at Rose-de-Lima St. at the corner of St-Antoine.

The closures will probably affect anyone driving in Montreal either directly or indirectly, as gridlock is expected to spread to alternate highways and local streets. Traffic planners expect Atwater Ave., René-Lévesque Blvd. and St-Antoine St. will be among the streets affected.

For Notre-Dame-de-Grâce and Westmount residents, the St-Jacques St. exit off the VilleMarie near the MUHC superhospital will be closed. Accessing the Champlain Bridge from the VilleMarie will be impossible, as the Highway 15 South entrance will also be closed.

At least one local traffic observer was alarmed about the planned closures.

“My suspicion is that a lot people will use René-Lévesque and some of the lateral routes that can’t really handle (that traffic),” said Rick Leckner, a former radio traffic reporter. “So, really, what has to be ensured is that there is very strict monitoring all the time.”

The news is particularly bad for anyone who drives in and out of downtown on weekends, as the Ville-Marie in both directions will be closed virtually every weekend this fall and winter while the existing roadway is demolished. But it gets worse.

On some weekends, the closures will extend on Highway 20 all the way to 1st Ave. in Lachine, and Highway 20 West will be inaccessible from Highway 15 North.

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