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Montreal traffic: Expect a bumpy rush hour thanks to snow, Ville-Marie closing

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Commuters heading to downtown Montreal Monday morning can expect to face major congestion as one of the most important phases of the Turcot project gets underway. 

The four-lane eastbound Ville-Marie Expressway between the Turcot Interchange and Guy St. is now permanently closed. It will eventually be demolished. 

Replacing the expressway is a new two-lane highway, known as Route 136, which will be expanded to four lanes in 2018. Drivers will be able to access the new route from both the 20 eastbound and the Décarie Expressway.

Transport officials announced the new highway was officially open shortly after 4:30 a.m. 

The season’s first few centimetres of snow, coupled with many people not having their winter tires installed yet, is also expected to slow things down Monday morning. No major accidents had been reported as of early Monday. 

Transport Quebec has urged commuters to take public transport instead of using their cars, as there is now only two lanes heading downtown, compared to the four lanes of the eastbound Ville-Marie Expressway.

Monday is also the first day of a new shuttle bus service offered by the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) to try to help people heading downtown from the West Island or the St-Laurent and Ahuntsic-Cartierville boroughs. 

Shuttle busses are offered from the new park-and-ride lot at the junction of Highway 40 and Highway 15. Users will be brought to the du Collège métro station on the Orange line. 

The buses, which will run every 15 minutes in the morning and every 10 minutes in the afternoon, are offered from 6:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. and from 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. According to the STM, the trip should take about 10 minutes. 

Traffic gridlocks caused by the Turcot restructuring were less severe than initially expected last month. 

The most traffic was expected when access ramps to the Ville-Marie from both the Décarie Expressway and the eastbound Highway 20 were reduced to one lane from two in October. 

Sébastien Marcoux, the assistant project director for KPH-Turcot, told the Montreal Gazette this month that traffic had been lighter than predicted from experts in part because of an increase in public transport users. 

The Turcot Interchange is used by more than 300,000 daily motorists. Construction is expected to be completed in September 2020.

jfeith@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/jessefeith


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