Stop me if you've heard this one before, your morning drive downtown is about to see some major delays.
As of Monday, November 21, all four lanes of the eastbound Ville-Marie Expressway from Turcot to Guy St. will be closed, for good, and eventually torn down.
This will force all motorists going downtown from Highway 20 and Highway 15 onto the new two-lane highway, Route 136.
Reducing the number of lanes from four to two for the estimated 3,600 cars that travel through the interchange during the morning rush hour is expected to cause significant delays.
Work will be done to expand the highway to four lanes, but that will not be done until 2018.
Until then, Transport Quebec is urging commuters to take public transportation and leave their cars at home when heading downtown.
To ensure the new roadway is ready for Monday, the ramp from Highway 20 to the eastbound Ville-Marie will be completely closed this weekend from Friday 11:30 P.M. to Monday 5:00 A.M.
The ramp from Highway 15 south to Highway 720 will be shut down from Friday 11:59 P.M. to Saturday 7:30 A.M. and again from Saturday 10:00 P.M. to Monday 5:00 A.M.
If you're already fed up with closures and detours, especially on the weekend, you should forget trying to go downtown this winter and wait until demolition work is done sometime in the spring of 2017.
In order to tear down the eastbound lanes of the Ville-Marie, Route 136 will be closed for 12 to 15 weekends starting in early December.