More Champlain Bridge lane closings planned

MONTREAL – Traffic should be a lot lighter on Montreal bridges this weekend, authorities say. But more major jams are expected later this month as roadwork continues on the Champlain Bridge.

Last weekend, bridges were congested thanks to lane closings on the Champlain, a problem that was compounded by the Saturday night shutdown of the Jacques Cartier for fireworks, and Sunday roadwork on the Mercier Bridge.

The Champlain southbound was supposed to be down to two lanes for much of the weekend because of paving work.

But on Saturday morning, an expansion joint broke on one of those two lanes, reducing the bridge to one lane between 11 a.m. and 2:15 p.m. that day, said Jean-Vincent Lacroix, a spokesperson for the federal Jacques Cartier and Champlain Bridges Inc.

"It was unexpected and not in our plans," Lacroix said.

That caused major delays on the Champlain, and led to influx on other bridges.

Lacroix said this coming weekend some lanes on the Champlain will be closed, but only from 9 p.m. on Friday to 8 a.m. on Saturday.

But on the following weekend -Aug. 21 to 22 -major work will mean that only one lane will be open toward the South Shore for the entire weekend, Lacroix said.

"More than ever, motorists are encouraged to use alternative routes or simply avoid the Champlain Bridges," Lacroix said. "Otherwise, traffic will be very heavy."

More major work on the Champlain is expected on the weekends of Sept. 11 and 12 and Sept. 18 and 19.

After that, work will continue on the bridge but will be focused for the most part on its underside, so lane closings will be limited until next spring, Lacroix said.

As for the Mercier, Transport Quebec -which owns part of the bridge -conducted work during much of last Sunday, reducing it to one Montreal-bound lane.

There will be some nighttime lane closings on the Mercier this week, but "we’re trying to avoid weekend lane closures on Mercier because of the work on the Champlain," Lacroix said.

His agency, the federal JCCB, also owns part of the Mercier.

Work on the Mercier ramp to Chateauguay is almost complete, with work to begin on the ramp to La Prairie in September, Lacroix said.

Champlain roadwork is mostly being done on summer weekends, he added.

"We try to concentrate our work on the summer because traffic is lower and we try to do it on weekends so we don’t touch weekday rush hours."

Authorities also try to avoid closing lanes on the Champlain on fireworks nights, when the Jacques Cartier is closed between 8 p.m. and 11:30 p.m., he said. But that was not possible last weekend because workers needed the whole weekend to complete the paving. The annual fireworks competition runs every Saturday between June 12 and Aug. 14.

Why not do all the work overnight, when traffic is at its lightest?

That’s not always possible, Lacroix said, because with some work -such as paving -long, continuous stretches of time are required. For last weekend’s Champlain repaving, for example, work went on night and day.

The Champlain Bridge, which opened in 1962, is Canada’s busiest bridge, carrying 59.4 million vehicles per year. Repairs to the Champlain are part of a 10-year, $212-million plan to rejuvenate the bridge. Work began last year.

The Mercier, which opened in 1934, is crossed by 30 million vehicles. A four-year repair project on it began in 2008, at a cost of $145 million.

The Jacques Cartier, which opened to traffic in 1930, is used by 35.4 million vehicles. Major repairs were done to it between 2001 and 2003 at a cost of $120 million.

For more information on the work, visit champlainbridge.ca and mercierbridge.ca