BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1019 Report
With only 27 days left in 2024 and despite a promise from Transport Quebec that a fourth lane will be reopened on the Île aux Tourtes Bridge before the end of the year, there is still no date when another lane will be put into service across the span allowing two lanes of traffic in both directions.
“The reopening of additional lanes depends on the progress of the work, which is complex, as well as weather conditions,” Transport officials confirmed in a statement issued last week. “The number of lanes on the bridge will increase as soon as it is safe to do so and an update will be provided over the coming days on the remaining steps to get there.”
That is the latest update from the Transport Ministry last week as they announced the bridge will be closed completely again next weekend.
Marking the eighth time the span will be shut to all traffic this year, the Île aux Tourtes will be blocked to all vehicles from midnight on Friday, Dec. 6, until 5 a.m. on Monday, Dec. 9.
The upcoming closure is to allow the reconfiguration of the lanes of Highway 40 on the approach to the bridge “in anticipation of the winter period,” Transport Quebec said in a statement issued last week.
At the end of October, Transport Quebec officials said an additional lane was to reopen before the end of 2024. That announcement was made as the ministry announced another weekend closure of the span, which occurred from Nov. 1-4. At that time, the closure was said to be necessary “to carry out marking work and to modify the configuration of the lanes in anticipation of the reopening of a fourth traffic lane. This is planned for the end of the year, when work to strengthen the current bridge will be sufficiently advanced. The ministry wishes to carry out these interventions now in order to take advantage of more favourable weather conditions for the durability of the marking.”
In September, the span was closed for two full weekends, once at the beginning of the month and then again towards the end of the month.
Those closures were deemed necessary to accommodate work in the installation of steel structures under a portion of the east end of the bridge. These structures are designed to provide additional support to the span.
Throughout last summer and into the fall crews extended two jetties into the lake from the eastern shores in Senneville. These jetties have served as work areas, allowing workers to install piles. The aim is to install steel structures on the piles, providing additional support to the old bridge’s main beams.
It is once these steel structures are in place that Transport Quebec said it would be able to open more lanes across the span.