Aside from the fact that it will be reserved for public transport, we know very little about the new version of the tunnel project that aims to connect Quebec to Lévis.
• Also read: New version of the 3rd link: Gilles Lehouillier enthusiastic about the idea of a tram
• Also read: Public Transport: According to a citizen collective, Lévis falls behind while waiting for a hypothetical third link
• Also read: Labeaume is convinced that the 3rd link reserved for public transport will never see the light of day
THE BLUR REMAINS: WHICH TYPE OF TRANSPORT AND HOW MUCH?
The mayor of Levis, Gilles LehouillierHe conjured up the image of a “napkin” to talk about the new, sparsely reasoned “vision” of the Third Link.
The fog actually seems to be quite dense. The route of the future tunnel is not known.
The Quebec government is silent on its costs and we still don’t know what kind of transportation is offered there, even if Quebec Mayor Bruno Marchand wants a tram to run there.
Although it may seem logical that the third link would connect to Quebec’s future streetcar, the locations where the tunnel would depart are not known, whether on the north coast or the south coast.
“With the project submitted this morning, I have no more time to lose [jeudi]. I will work on projects in my city that have a chance to move forward,” Mr Lehouillier thundered on Thursday, saying he felt betrayed.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF COSTS
In her press conference on Thursday, Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault said the government had to abandon the “Twin Tubes” project with a road component because it would have cost up to $10 billion.
However, the same project was valued at $6.5 billion in April 2022.
A year earlier, in spring 2021, there was talk of a tube with a diameter of 19.4 meters to be built using one of the largest tunnel boring machines in the world to accommodate six lanes one above the other on two levels.
The cost should be between 6 and 10 billion dollars.
If we go back a few years, in the summer of 2018, just before the elections where the CAQs took power, the Liberals had said they would study five different corridors to get through the third link.
No construction costs were advanced.
In 2016, Professor Bruno Massicotte mentioned a cost of $4 billion for an eastbound tunnel.
A QUOTE THAT AGED BADLY
Photo archive, agency QMI
“They are in continuity with what they did from the start, which means they are trying to delay the project as much as possible […] Everyone knows that the natural corridor is the top of the island. »
– Éric Caire, CAQ MP, August 14, 2018, in response to the project presented by the Liberals
WHICH PROPERTY?
Illustration courtesy of the Quebec government
Route of the Québec-Lévis Tunnel presented by the CAQ government on Monday, May 17, 2021.
The route for the construction of the future third link, which will be entirely dedicated to public transport, has not been announced.
Studies suggest that it could extend from the Saint-Roch district to the Galeries Chagnon in Lévis for about 6 km.
Over the years, the route of the third link has changed regularly. We’ve talked a long time about a route east.
This is also the subject of Professor Bruno Massicotte’s 2016 study.
In 2018, the Liberals had identified five possible corridors (four in the east and one in the west).
Rather, in 2018 and 2019, the new CAQ administration conjured up a 4-mile (6.5-kilometer) underflow tunnel between Beauport in eastern Quebec and the Lallemand Strait in Lévis.
We also linked the third connection project to the reconstruction of the Île-d’Orléans bridge.
A year later, in early 2020 just before the pandemic, it was more about a tunnel connecting downtown Quebec to downtown Lévis.
WE DON’T TALK ABOUT DEADLINES ANY MORE
No timetable for the completion of the new version of the tunnel was presented by the transport minister on Thursday.
Over the years, several years have been sought for the third link to become operational.
For a long time we talked about 2030, then 2032.
From now on we’re not making any progress at all.
RELATIONS BETWEEN QUÉBEC AND LÉVIS
Nothing officially changes in relations between Quebec and Lévis.
Gilles Lehouillier assured on Thursday that he did not blame his counterpart Bruno Marchand for his lukewarm attitude towards the abandoned “two-tube” project.
The mayor of Lévis openly admitted that his opinion, like that of Mr Marchand, should not have weighed too much in the government’s decision.
“Basically, the government made its decision independently of the mayors. I am proof of that,” he half-fig, half-grape launched.
Mr. Lehouillier also assured that the Quebec-Lévis economic zone created last month would not suffer from this situation.
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