The apprehended congestion on the South Shore was still light Thursday morning, nearly two weeks after the start of the three-year mega-construction site in the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel.
It took less than 20 minutes to cross on Highway 20 the 22 kilometers from Beloeil to the tunnel, Thursday morning. The other crossings to Montreal were also lightly congested, namely the Jacques-Cartier, Victoria, Samuel-De Champlain and Honoré-Mercier bridges.
The only noticeable traffic jam on the South Shore: a slowdown still present on Highway 30, westbound, near Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville.
IMAGE PROVIDED BY THE MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT
Passage time in the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel Thursday morning, at 8:15 a.m.
The Ministry of Transport feared that the repair of one of the two tubes of the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel would increase congestion on the other crossings. Mitigation measures have been put in place mainly on the South Shore, but these remain little used. Increased use of telework, also encouraged, could have reduced the number of trips and therefore the pressure on the road network.
Indeed Thursday morning, with 780 passengers, bus traffic on the South Shore was slightly higher than that observed last week, but far from the capacity of the lines put in place for the duration of the construction site. In the metro, ridership at the Longueuil and Radisson stations was slightly higher than what prevailed before the start of the work. However, the Société de transport de Montréal did not notice any overloading of its network with this slight gain in passengers.
However, the park-and-ride lots are less crowded than last week. Thursday morning, 864 of the 2,455 spaces on the South Shore were occupied, or only a third.
As always, however, traffic remains more difficult on the island. It also took 25 minutes to travel the 5 kilometers between Anjou and the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel. Only one lane is available in the direction of the South Shore, against two towards Montreal, as part of this project which should last three years.
Elsewhere, traffic was heavy on Autoroute 40 westbound, between Autoroutes 15 and 25. Décarie was also congested, particularly northbound.
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