BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1019 Report
Residents of Vaudreuil-Soulanges have been dealing with reduced lanes due to repair work on the Île aux Tourtes Bridge for years.
Traffic jams, accident delays, unexpected mishaps and speed traps are among the things motorists have to face – regularly. It has been a long road. And it is far from over. Work on the span will continue until the new bridge is opened – a date that at, according to the last pronouncement from Quebec Transport officials, is set for 2026.
Here is a rundown of the saga commuters in this region have had to contend with.
2016: Repair work on the Île aux Tourtes Bridge begins.
December 2018: Plan to build a new bridge to replace the aging span is announced. At this time it is estimated that planning will take about six years, while construction will unfold over four to five years, which will put the opening of a new span in 2028 or 2029.
2020: Work begins to repair and reinforce the supports under the roadbed. This will continue until the end of May 2021. Lampposts in the central island of the bridge are also replaced.
September 2020: The Coalition Avenir Québec government includes the bridge plan among a list of 181 infrastructure projects it proposes to fast-track in an effort to stimulate the economy in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. No details, however, are released on how the timeline for the project will be accelerated.
January 2021: Transport Quebec wraps up an online consultation of the proposed architectural plans for the new bridge, which includes three lanes of traffic and a reserved bus lane in both directions, as well as a path for pedestrians and cyclists.
February 2021: Trucks and other heavy vehicles are again banned from the eastbound lanes of the span as two lanes are closed to allow ongoing work to continue to maintain the structure.
April 2021: The Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE) holds a public online information session on the Quebec Transport Ministry’s plans to build a new bridge. The goal of the consultation session is to outline the project, including the scope of the proposed construction plan and design of the span.
May 19, 2021: Quebec Transport Minister François Bonnardel orders the immediate emergency closure of the bridge.
May 22, 2021: Vaudreuil-Dorion Mayor Guy Pilon sends Bonnardel a letter outlining his dissatisfaction with the provincial government’s failure to address the transportation needs of the region.
Said Pilon: “…the bridge has already required $110.4 million in maintenance work. The Quebec Ministry of Transport expects to have to inject $172.4 million into it by 2031 to keep it in service before construction of a new bridge.”
Pilon also calls on the provincial government to move on another long-ignore proposal – to build a highway bypass route for the seven-kilometre stretch of Highway 20 through Vaudreuil-Dorion and Île Perrot that is the longest section of an autoroute in Quebec that is controlled by traffic lights. “A commitment was made some 50 years ago by the government to upgrade Highway 20. We are still waiting.”
May 26, 2021: Quebec Transport Minister François Bonnardel says: “We will try to accelerate construction of this new bridge, adding work could begin in spring of 2023 with a completion date some time at the end of 2026 or beginning of 2027. The original timeline pegged for completion was in 2028 or 2029.
May 31, 2021: One lane in each direction on the span is reopened to traffic.
June 7, 2021: Two eastbound lanes and one westbound lane on the bridge is opened for morning rush hours, switching to two westbound lanes and one eastbound for the afternoon rush hours.
June 14, 2021: Two lanes in each direction of the span are reopened. The goal of having three lanes open in each direction is planned for June 21, but this never happens.
November 2021: Transport Quebec unveils latest designs of the proposed new bridge that are strikingly similar to the plans presented to the public earlier in the year. Three lanes and two shoulders in both directions are still planned for the new span. The bike and pedestrian lane on the westbound side of the bridge is still there too, although it is slightly wider in the new designs. The only difference is the timeline – the completion is now pegged for 2028 or 2029 at the earliest.
Another new item in the plans: a corridor adjacent to the new bridge is now reserved in the event Quebec’s executive council decides to proceed with a Réseau express métropolitain (REM) extension to Vaudreuil-Soulanges.
“We don’t know if the government is going to go ahead with bringing the REM to the area,” a Transport Quebec spokesperson says. “That’s not our call. All we can do is plan for the possibility that it happens.”
November 2021: Transport Quebec reveals it will spend more than $172 million by 2031 to ensure that the old bridge remains safe.
November 2021: Although precise cost estimates are not revealed, the price tag for the new span is confirmed simply as being “more than $100 million.”
Fall 2022: As part of its regular infrastructure monitoring process, Transport Quebec discovers the progression of certain existing cracks on a box beam located on the north side of the bridge in the westbound lanes.
December 2022: The number of lanes are reduced to two in each direction to accommodate ongoing work on the span, creating traffic delays and sparking complaints from commuters. Once this latest work, which includes the repair of cracks along the span, an additional lane will be reopened, officials promise. That additional lane was finally reopened earlier this month – about 10 months later.
Jan. 23, 2023: A Transport Quebec spokesperson admits the bridge will never reopen fully. Said the spokesperson: “Unfortunately, until we get that new bridge, we have to manage and work with what we have at the moment.”
Last week of January 2023: Vaudreuil-Dorion Mayor Guy Pilon describesa meeting between Quebec Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault and the 23 mayors in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges MRC to discuss the traffic hurdles caused by recent maintenance work on the bridge as “a lot of blah, blah, blah.” Pilon blasts the minister for not coming to the meeting prepared, as well as presenting mitigation solutions that are out of touch with the realities of the region.
Feb. 8, 2023: Commuters share their comments about ongoing traffic delays on the span with The 1019 Report:
- Richard Lamontagne of Rigaud: “It seems like nobody in the government gives a damn about what happens west of Montreal.”
- Paolo Quercia of Vaudreuil-Dorion: “Commuters have been living with problems on the bridge for years. But now, some people are finally at their breaking point.”
- Rachel Leider of Hudson: “These closures affect real people, their families and their mental health. The state of the bridge has gotten to the point of gross negligence and politicians are to blame for not taking care of their constituents.”
Feb. 14, 2023: The town of St. Lazare calls on Transport Quebec to treat the traffic woes caused by ongoing maintenance work on the Île aux Tourtes as a top priority. In a strongly worded resolution, the town demanded that the government “act urgently and ensure a better transit experience between Vaudreuil-Soulanges and the island of Montreal.”
Feb. 14, 2023: A spokesperson for the Transport Ministry confirms ongoing work on the bridge will cost the province an additional $234.6 million.
Feb. 14, 2023: Updating an earlier promise, Transport Quebec says it expects to open a third lane in the direction of rush-hour traffic in April. That lane remained closed until earlier this month.
February 2023: Trucking companies lament the traffic delays caused by work on the bridge, calling the situation a “nightmare scenario” that is costing them tens of thousands of dollars a week.
February 2023: According to the Transport Ministry, new bridge will not open until 2029.
Feb. 22, 2023: LaPresse reportsthe new bridge will come with a whopping $2-billion price tag, which represents a 45-per-cent increase from the previously estimated cost of $1.4 billion.
Feb. 23, 2023: Transport Quebec refuses to confirm figures reported by LaPresse.
March 6, 2023: Transport Quebec confirms that a consortium made up of Roxboro Excavations, Dragados Canada and Construction Demathieu & Bard will take on the construction of the new Île aux Tourtes Bridge. The group confirms the cost of the new bridge will be more than $2 billion.
March 2023: Crews begin preparatory work at the site of the long-awaited new bridge, including clearing trees, conducting geotechnical drilling operations and bringing
equipment to the site.
March 21, 2023: A petition is launched by Vaudreuil MNA Marie-Claude Nichols at the National Assembly calling for the new span to include a structure that would extend the Réseau express metropolitain (REM) light-rail network to Vaudreuil-Soulanges.
April 5, 2023: The 1019 report motorists caught by photo radar traps on the Île aux Tourtes Bridge in 2022 have been slapped with $7.7 million in speeding tickets. Almost 21,000 infractions were issued in 2022, including almost 12,000 tickets stemming from the trap in the eastbound lanes, which carried fines that totalled almost $3.6 million, and 8,962 infractions issued by the detector in the westbound lanes, which was set up in September 2022. These tickets carried fines that totalled roughly $4.1 million.
April 17, 2023: Quebec Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault reveals the total cost of the new bridge has ballooned to a whopping $2.3 billion – roughly 64-per-cent more than the $1.4 billion forecasted in 2022. The increase is blame don inflation and difficulties in securing labour.
April 17, 2023: Transport Quebec announces details about how the new bridge will be built in phases, pushing forward the opening of the span by 18 months to the end of 2026. A bike-pedestrian lane on the north side of the span will be completed in 2028. The old bridge will be demolished in 2029. And final landscaping touches will be added in 2030, marking the end of the project.
June 7, 2023: A petition calling on the provincial government to extend the Réseau express metropolitain (REM) light-rail network to Vaudreuil-Soulanges via the bridge amasses 3,363 signatures since it was launched on March 21.
October 2023: Transport Quebec reopens three lanes in the direction of rush-hour traffic across the span, while two lanes are maintained in the opposite direction.