MONTREAL – South Shore commuters got more bad news as the Bonaventure Expressway will be closed for roadwork this weekend.
The closure means drivers will have to find alternate routes to get to and from the Island of Montreal, such as the Jacques-Cartier Bridge, or use the A-15 North off the Champlain Bridge followed by the A-720 East.
Though the work has been planned for months, motorists say it doesn’t make the impact any easier.
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“It’s going to be hell on both sides,” one driver said Tuesday.
The roadwork is the final phase of a four-stage project undertaken by the federal crown corporation that runs the bridges.
“We are changing all the decks, all the expansion drains, all the paving, so it’s a major worksite that has continued over the past weeks,” said Jean-Vincent Lacroix, the spokesperson for the corporation.
Given recent lane closures on the Champlain Bridge and announced work on the Yellow Line of the Metro system, drivers are getting fed up.
READ MORE: Yellow line to close on weekends in 2014; fare hikes possible
“They’re doing too much at the same time,” one truck driver said.
“They should lay it out throughout the months in the summer time, even into the winter time. It’s way too much construction all at the same spot, all at the same time.”
Part of the reason for simultaneous construction that is lasting longer into the wintertime involves new rules regarding contractors adopted as a result of the revelations at the Charbonneau Commission hearings.
Another issue, said transportation consultant Rick Leckner, is that overlapping jurisdictions are often handling these projects.
“The Jacques-Cartier, Champlain Bridge and part of the Bonaventure Autoroute, that’s federal,” he said.
“Part of it is municipal, and a piece of it’s provincial. So it’s complicated.”
Closures of the Bonaventure are scheduled to start at 8 p.m. Friday and last until 6 a.m. Monday.
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