Icebreaker boats will be used in the coming weeks around the construction site of the new Île-aux-Tourtes bridge, which must be partially put into service by 2026. Vigilance is therefore required for people venturing on the waters.
Posted at 1:43 p.m.
This was indicated on Tuesday by the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility (MTMD), in a notice sent to residents of Vaudreuil-Dorion and Senneville.
It reads in particular that to continue the work during the winter season, “ice-breaking boats will be used on Lac des Deux Montagnes and in Vaudreuil Bay, where the waters are conducive to the formation of ice, in order to allow the transport of materials and the circulation of barges”.
“These operations will have an impact on the thickness of the ice,” says the ministry, which at the same time asks citizens “to be vigilant if you practice certain recreational activities on ice.”
“It is everyone’s responsibility to check the thickness of the ice before venturing into it,” the government persists in its missive.
-As a general rule, boats will operate on a daily basis during the week, between 6 a.m. and the end of the day, around 6 p.m. This schedule could nevertheless change depending on needs, operational constraints or even the weather.
The current Île-aux-Tourtes bridge is destined to be replaced by a new, wider structure which must be partially put into service by December 2026, with five lanes out of six. The six tracks would then be ready at the end of 2027, if all goes well.
In the meantime, however, all six lanes should be reopened on the existing bridge, pending the new one. Currently, only three out of six routes are accessible.
Moreover, a fourth lane will not reopen before the end of winter, the Ministry of Transport recently admitted. It had earlier been envisaged that a fourth lane would be reopened before the end of 2024, but certain beams of the bridge continued to deteriorate in the Senneville sector.
The project to rebuild a new bridge has experienced several cost increases. In total, it is now valued at 2.3 billion and will be located north of the current infrastructure. This will then be dismantled, as was the case with the Champlain Bridge.
