Third link: a corridor in summer 2025

The Legault government will announce on Friday that it is launching a call for interest from international consortia for the third link project: this will result in establishing a corridor for infrastructure, in the summer of 2025, but without cost or precise route .

The day after the green light given to the tramway, the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Geneviève Guilbault, will announce at a press conference Friday morning that she is launching an international call for interest for the third link, we learned The Journal. The consortia that respond will be responsible for presenting their vision of the third link.

Reference concept

This process should result in a “preliminary reference concept” around the summer of 2025. This concept will determine a corridor where the infrastructure can be installed. The CAQ wants it to be a bridge to the east.

We will not have the detailed route with approaches and exits nor the estimated budget for the project.

Consortia will have 30 days to respond to the call for interest. Then, meetings will take place with the firms for three months. And in the end, we will determine a reference concept, which will be presented next summer. Subsequently, the consortia will be called upon to qualify and make a precise proposal. This qualification call will not be made before 2026.

Collaborative mode

The third link will be the first project which will be carried out in collaborative mode, as now permitted by law, which provides for continuous exchanges with bidders and which ensures risk sharing between the partners.

At the same time, the government will launch two calls for tenders for professional services for the third link project, within the next two weeks, according to our information.

On Friday, the minister will present the next steps for the project. This announcement also comes at a time when we learn that according to a survey, the population no longer believes in the realization of the third link project.