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construction on the métro's blue line extension to begin in september
work will start with major excavations and all the expected traffic snarls that come with that.
aug 23 2024
3 minute read
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work on the first métro line extension to be built on the island of montreal in 40 years will finally start in earnest next month, bringing with it with traffic snarls on jean-talon st.
the blue line extension will start with major excavations at the end of september, which will mean blocked traffic on jean-talon at the intersections of pie-ix and viau blvds. mitigation measures will be put in place to detour traffic and ensure businesses are still accessible, and public transit will be rerouted, officials said. later in the fall, traffic will be completely blocked at the intersection with langelier blvd.
first officially promised in 2018 after decades of failed pledges, and with a due date of 2026 , officials with the société de transport de montréal that are co-managing the project announced friday the line is expected to go into service as of 2031, with five new stations stretching eastward to anjou and ending near highway 25. all of the stations will be wheelchair accessible, with elevators.
“major construction work and excavation will be under way in the following weeks,” said maha clour, the extension’s lead project director. “and this is mainly due to the fact we just awarded the main contract for the blue line extension — the construction backbone of the project, which is the tunnel with most of the excavation done underground with a tunnel boring machine.”
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the contract for the main tunnel connecting the five stations was awarded to a consortium of three construction firms led by quebec-based pomerleau and includes a european contractor specializing in constructing and operating tunnelling machines. with the contract for the main tunnel and much of the deconstruction of buildings already awarded or completed, the stm can move on to granting other contracts for excavation, cement work and the installation of mechanical and electrical infrastructure, and elevators.
as is the case with all métro stations in montreal’s network, each of the five new stations will have its own unique architectural design.
the total price, which was first estimated at $3.9 billion in 2018, then increased to $6.4 billion in 2022, is now projected to be $7.6 billion, with post-pandemic rises in the cost of labour and materials accounting for the majority of the hike, clour said.
when finished, the new stations are expected to see close to 69,000 passengers a day, with 20,000 riding during morning rush hour.
in total, nearly eight kilometres of tunnels roughly 10 metres in diameter will be dug at a depth of up between 17 and 40 metres underground. that includes digging nearly six km of tunnels for the subway route, and another 1.5 kilometres for an underground garage to store métro trains.
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the tunnelling machine imported from europe will dig the subway line, excavate rock and put up the concrete walls — all at the same time. it is projected to advance at a rate of 12 metres a day.
the machine is slated to arrive in 2025, and will take close to a year to assemble before it can start boring in 2026. it will be a massive construction site, involving 2,000 workers working to excavate 2.4 million tonnes of rock and pouring 218,000 tonnes of concrete.
first promised in the 1980s, the blue line extension has been plagued with delays and ballooning costs since the planning phase began in 2013. the project’s approval and funding were announced with much fanfare in 2018, with construction expected to begin in 2020. another announcement in 2022 pegged the project at $6.4 billion, with construction to begin in 2023.
at the project’s official announcement in 2018 attended by canadian prime minister justin trudeau, st-léonard city councillor dominic perri noted he had been hearing about the promised extension “since i first ran for office here in 1982. thirty-six years.” since then, successive provincial governments pledged extensions and steered tens of millions toward studies, but no work was done.
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pierre frisko, general manager of the jean talon east business-development corporation, noted at the time it takes public transit users 45 minutes to an hour to get downtown from st-léonard, with the result the borough has the highest percentage of car owners on the island.
the lack of efficient public transit also discouraged industries from setting up shop because they feared they couldn’t attract workers, he said.
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