As construction continues to build a new Île-aux-Tourtes bridge, complaints about the timeline and what’s not included continue to pile up.
Airline pilot Lino Palumbo is frustrated that Transports Québec officials only recently began building a replacement bridge. Palumbo has been using the bridge for years to get to the Trudeau airport and says the government shouldn’t have waited until this month to start work on a new span.
“The problems they’ve been having go way back. I mean we’re talking years,” Palumbo told Global News.
Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault told reporters on Monday that work on the new bridge officially began on Dec. 4th.
She says it will partially open to traffic by the end of 2026, one year ahead of schedule and there will be a dedicated lane for public transit, buses but no commitment to include space for a possible extension of the all electric train network, the Réseau express métropolitain (REM).
”Vaudreuil is the perfect place. We have a Costco, we have everything but we don’t have the REM. What would it have taken to actually plan for it,” Palumbo said.
The new bridge is budgeted at more than $2 billion and is being completely financed by the Quebec government.