MONTREAL – Quebec’s transport department has confirmed that a section of the Trans-Canada highway closed due to falling debris on Monday has been re-opened, although officials expect to close it again later Monday night for more inspections.
Traffic had been at a standstill since just before noon along part of Highway 40, a busy thoroughfare in Montreal, after it was completely closed when chunks of what appeared to be concrete fell from an overpass.
All westbound lanes were shut down for over three hours and to ease traffic, one eastbound lane along was also closed to allow vehicles to exit from the 40 W. The westbound exit to the Henri-Bourassa overpass remained closed until nearly 5:30 p.m.
Motorists were advised to take a detour via exit A 13 and faced considerable delays.
Quebec provincial police spokesperson Sergeant Gino Paré said that authorities received a call at 11:37 a.m., advising that something had fallen from the overpass above Highway 40.
“No one has been hurt,” he noted.
Investigators from provincial transport department spent most of the afternoon working to determine whether the debris that fell near the overpass at Henri-Bourassa Boulevard was from a vehicle travelling over the highway or a section of the overpass itself.
“We don’t know yet where the debris came from,” said Caroline Larose, a spokesperson for Transports Quebec.
“A car was crushed but no one was injured.”
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She confirmed that a team of engineers was at the scene to investigate.
“A truck could have hit the overpass or debris could have fallen from the overpass,” she said.
“We don’t want to take any risks, which is why we temporarily closed the highway.”
Benoit Richard, another spokesperson for the Sûreté du Québec who was on-site at the incident, told Global News at around 1:20 p.m. that from what he understood, the debris may have been a piece of the overpass.
The state of Quebec’s crumbling road infrastructure has been of particular public concern since a highway overpass in Laval collapsed in September 2006, killing five people.
– With a file from The Canadian Press
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