Split-up couples must make heartbreaking decisions as they review childcare plans due to the hell of work on the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine Bridge Tunnel.
• Also read: Far to the east of Montreal, the factory hell simmers
• Also read: Congestion: No fewer than 140 cities have more traffic than Montreal
• Also read: 4 transport solutions to avoid the worst?
“If you’re a family and your child lives on the South Shore, I’m sorry but it’s heartbreaking. It hurts, it hurts We can no longer see our children, we lose hours with them, ”says tight-throated Marie-Eve Robertson, who lives in Terrebonne and has joint custody of their daughter Noémie, 9, whose father is in Longueuil.
For them, as for others, the work on the bridge tunnel is also a real headache for separated parents who live on one side or the other of the St. Lawrence River and share custody of their child.
“Before, I had my daughter every other week. But there, with the work and the traffic, it’s impossible to get him to his school every morning,” laments Ms. Robertson.
Since one of the tunnel tubes was closed on October 31, the travel time between her home and her ex-husband has almost doubled from about an hour to over two hours.
“We’re not going to wake up at 4:30 a.m. just so it’s time for school!” It would be ridiculous,” the cleaning lady interjects.
Longer than going to beauty
Tommy Morin, a resident of Montreal’s Pointe-aux-Trembles sector who usually babysits his son every two weeks, faces the same dilemma.
“I just can’t bring him to school every morning anymore, that would take more than three hours,” complains the 39-year-old father.
Her son attends high school on the south coast of Montreal, in Sainte-Julie, where he lives with his mother the rest of the time.
Before work, Mr Morin took about 30 minutes to take his 15-year-old son to school and 25 minutes to return home. Today, travel time has literally tripled.
“I realized it would take less time to drive to Beauce to see my father than it would to make the round trip to pick up my son,” he laughs.
program change
Result: Ms. Robertson and Mr. Morin reluctantly resigned themselves to reviewing the calling plan.
Instead of seeing their child every two weeks, they only have them at home on the weekends.
“But even on Friday it takes me 3h15 to go there and back and the same on Sunday when I bring him back to his mother. It was more than six hours that I couldn’t have a good time with it, ” regrets the one who works at the port of Montreal.
3 years
It is difficult for both parents to imagine how the situation can be solved since the work has to last at least three years.
Some try to get by as best they can.
“Since he’s tall, he’ll soon be able to use public transport to help us a little to cut down on the travel time to at least reach Montreal.” Except that again it will be very expensive to go from Sainte-Julie to Longueuil and then from Longueuil to Montreal,” laments Mr. Morin.
For her part, Ms. Robertson is considering rearranging her work schedule to avoid traffic and major congestion.
“It will require a lot of adjustments, but it’s really sad that there isn’t another solution,” she says.
Do you have any information about this story that you would like to share with us?
Do you have a scoop that might be of interest to our readers?