Work near the Pierre-Laporte bridge has caused traffic jams in Quebec since Saturday morning.
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As of 7 a.m., many motorists began using the infrastructure connecting Quebec and Lévis. However, due to work on the Risi Bridge, located just before the Pierre-Laporte Bridge, traffic was backed up by five kilometres. So, it took about 30 minutes to travel from one bank to another in a southerly direction.
“We started seeing congestion from early morning. The more we go through the day, the more there are. Journey times are displayed on the network to help road users make better decisions,” explained Ministry of Transport (MTQ) spokeswoman Emily Lord in an interview with TVA Nouvelles.
At the beginning of the afternoon, Transport Quebec through its Quebec 511 page reported on social network X that the wait time for the Pierre-Laporte bridge was 40 minutes. Patience was also required to reach the south bank at the Quebec Bridge, an estimated 35 minutes.
Working with different partners
As this is an exceptional situation for the Quebec region, MTQ has opened an emergency operations coordination centre. Therefore, with various partners including SQ, CIUSSS de la Capitale-Nationale and CISSS de Chaudière-Appalaches.
“Since this morning, we have had congestion, vehicles breaking down etc. We also need to make decisions to ensure that there is better liquidity in all areas,” explained Patrick Houle, MTQ’s Interim General Director for the Saudier-Appalachia region.
– In collaboration with Louis Deschênes