>>2010812The Autoroute Métropolitaine portion in Montréal is the busiest highway in Quebec, the busiest section of the Trans-Canada Highway, as well as the second busiest highway section overall in Canada after Highway 401 in Toronto.
Built from 1960, this road axis was initially not intended to play the role of a highway, but rather a bypass boulevard, explains Gérard Beaudet, in an interview with Patrice Roy. The Métropolitaine was built on stilts so as not to harm urban development.
However, today it is the only highway that crosses Montreal from east to west. In addition, it has no effective bypass route since highways 30 and 440 are too far away or too difficult to access.
Worse still, the road was saturated as soon as it was inaugurated since the population growth rates and the increase in automobile travel were poorly assessed.
This problem is all the more relevant because the number of vehicles on Quebec roads continues to grow at the rate of 85,000 new vehicles per year for 10 years.
However, Gérard Beaudet insists on the fact that while motorists generally manage to adapt to road closures and traffic obstructions, delivery trucks are often unable to do so, in particular due to the unique status of is to the west of this 12.5 kilometer section.
