Motor traffic is falling in the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel, a month after the start of the mega-site that will force the closure of three lanes out of six, La Presse has noted. Today less than 60,000 vehicles use this important infrastructure every day.
Posted at 5:00 am
This emerges from a report published on Monday by the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility (MTMD). Before work began in July 2020, 120,000 vehicles drove through the tunnel every day. In September 2022, a few weeks before construction began, it was only 85,000, and at the beginning of December it was only 58,000.
Quebec claims that it is the mitigation measures combined with “road user collaboration” that have therefore made it possible to “reduce car traffic in the tunnel by more than 50%”.
However, from the start of the work to date, the decrease is only 31%.
Within four weeks, several corrections were made by the Legault government. Most importantly, since mid-November, trucks have been banned from using the right-hand lane of the southbound Autoroute 25 between exit 6 (towards Rue Beaubien and Boulevard Yves-Prévost) and the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel.
In addition to adjustments related to the “required police presence” around the tunnel and on other axes where congestion has shifted, work was also carried out on “reprogramming of traffic lights in the municipal network”.
Last month, the Renouveau La Fontaine consortium responsible for the works in the tunnel claims to have started “preparatory work for the repair of the walls and vault of the tube” towards the south bank, including “the removal of the cracked concrete with hydraulic hammers as well as the Removing the wheel covers”.
The contractor “has also started to mobilize equipment that will be used in the spring to continue work,” according to the ministry.
Expansion of public transport, but…
In addition to car traffic, Quebec confirms that its mitigation efforts — notably establishing five new free shuttles and making incentive parking available to users — have “enabled many to switch to public transit.”
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, LA PRESSE ARCHIVE
A bus leaves the Radisson terminus in the Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district to reach Boucherville.
A little over 1,300 people used these shuttles each day for the past month, up from 533 on a typical day before October 31, a 147% increase. However, the self-imposed target of 3,000 public transport users is far from being reached.
The ministry also recognizes that “although these statistics are encouraging, there is still a large spare capacity”. On the metro, the government recorded jumps averaging 5.3% at Radisson station on the green line and 4.5% at Longueuil-Université-de-Sherbrooke station on the yellow line. South Shore park and rides are seeing an increase in occupancy rate of approximately 27%.
On the water, the river shuttle between Boucherville and Promenade-Bellerive remains marginal but still generated 5,338 trips in November compared to 3,967 in October, an increase of nearly 35%. The last shuttle connections will be offered on December 11th.
“Bus shuttles, the train and the subway offer a comfortable and reliable service with far more predictable travel times than by car. Everyone’s efforts to get around differently are making a real difference locally,” Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault said in a written statement sent by her cabinet.