Rush hours in Lévis have become very complicated in recent days. The accumulation of road construction work on major roads is causing “unprecedented” traffic jams, according to motorists and transport operators.
The widening of Highway 20 between the Route du Président-Kennedy and Avenue Taniata and Boulevard Guillaume-Couture makes traveling in the area very complicated. In addition, one lane on the Quebec Bridge has been closed since Monday morning.
Some drivers took 75 minutes to get from one city center to another in the morning, according to data collected by Google Maps during the day yesterday. Typically this trip takes 30-40 minutes during morning rush hour.
Stevens LeBlanc/JOURNAL DE QUEBEC
On average, users of the application who had the geolocation feature enabled spent between 40 minutes and 1 hour 15 minutes in their car driving the same route from work to home.
On Wednesday it also took more than an hour at the end of the day to cover the distance between the two inner cities from the south bank.
Never seen it
Highway 20 between the Pierre Laporte Bridge and Lévis is the focus of the routine of Maxim Pilote, a truck driver from Quebec. He claims that he has never experienced such a slowdown on the twenty-kilometer route.
“I’m used to crossing the bridge, I do it at least six times a day, so I’ve seen some traffic. “On Monday, during one of my morning runs, it took me a good hour to get my load from Lévis to Quebec because I was stuck on the 20,” he laments.
Quebec Trucking Association (ACQ) president and CEO Marc Cadieux agrees.
“I had the opportunity to experience it myself last week, and I understand our carrier members: we are still stuck in this for a long time. […] This increases transport costs. »
Return to pre-pandemic levels
For his part, the mayor of Lévis believes that the traffic jams will continue as long as the government does not resolve the issue of a new connection between the banks.
“I don’t think the work on Highway 20 will have much of an impact on traffic. Rather, we are experiencing a return to normal traffic. That explains the traffic jams and we will have more and more of them,” said Gilles Lehouillier on the sidelines of a visit to a road construction site.
Émilie Lord, spokesperson for the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility (MTMD), expected significant traffic jam problems for a few days due to the closure of a lane on the Quebec Bridge.
However, she seemed surprised by the fact that there were so many delays on Highway 20, knowing that there was no closure lane, just a narrowing along the width.
– In collaboration with Nicolas St-Pierre
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