Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine Tunnel | The project will be almost a year late

The Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine bridge-tunnel mega-construction site will be at least almost a year late, with the end of the closure of three out of six lanes of the infrastructure now planned for the fall of 2026, we have learned. The Press.

This was indicated by several sources on Thursday, on the sidelines of a meeting of the Mobilité Montréal steering committee, responsible for coordinating obstacles in the metropolitan region, in the presence of the Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault. She is due to make an announcement on the subject during the month of June.

In the short term, the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility (MTMD) will not be able to carry out work on the second tube this summer, as planned. The new official deadline for this operation is postponed to spring 2025.

The entire project, including the two tubes, must be postponed for several months, or even almost a year. The lifting of road obstacles, in other words the closure of three out of six lanes, will not take place before the fall of 2026, although this was promised in November 2025. The end of the project, set for 2026, could therefore go further further away.

According to our information, several factors weighed in the balance. First, the cessation of work for two weeks last summer due to mold discovered in a segment of the service corridor is put forward as a main cause.

It also appears that the infrastructure’s ventilation towers are in a much more degraded state than previously believed and that additional work will be necessary. The work also turned out to be more complex than anticipated during concrete work in the tunnel, which nevertheless remains safe.

“The tunnel project is excessively complex and it is the first repair of its kind in 60 years. We continue the work […] despite delays caused by situations beyond our control. The mitigation measures will be adjusted,” indicated Minister Guilbault’s office, in response to our questions.

A telegraphed scenario

As early as October 2023, the government telegraphed its intentions, a year after the start of the mega-construction project in the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel, confirming that certain delays were already observed.

However, at that time we planned to speed up certain work during the winter period. “In the spring, we will have a more precise idea of ​​what is coming,” said the director of major projects for Greater Montreal at MTMD, Martin Giroux.

At this stage, it is still unknown whether the cost of the project will increase due to this postponement, but we can assume that yes. Further details should be given in this regard during the government announcement.

Last I heard, the bill was around $2.5 billion. However, envelopes remained planned since the start of the project to anticipate the “financial risks” that could arise along the way.

Negotiations are underway with the Renouveau-La Fontaine (RLF) consortium, made up of Dodin Campenon Bernard SAS, Eurovia Infra and Pomerleau inc., to open as many routes as possible as quickly as possible. An opening by sequences would be considered.

Metropolitan affected?

Behind the scenes, some players fear that the postponement of the La Fontaine tunnel mega-construction project will postpone the other major challenge looming in terms of infrastructure: the complete renovation of the elevated structures of the Metropolitan highway, over a distance of 11 .4 km, a project estimated at “a few billion”. The idea is not to multiply two projects with so much impact on the road network.

This work will be divided into two phases: the eastern part, over a distance of 5.2 km between Saint-Laurent Boulevard and Provencher Boulevard, will be reconstructed as a priority by the MTMD. This section is located very close to the junction of Highway 25, which connects the Metropolitan Highway to the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel.

On its website, the Ministry of Transport indicates that work is still “in planning” for this nerve center where some 190,000 vehicles circulate daily, including 13% heavy vehicles.

In the fall of 2022, the mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante, described the current work on the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine bridge-tunnel as “good practice” for those that will be carried out on the Metropolitan highway. “I don’t want to scare anyone, but the reality is that our infrastructures – we did Turcot, we did Champlain – are coming to an end pretty much all at the same time,” she noted.