La Fontaine tunnel renovations now costing close to $2.8B

Despite lane closures, construction delays, and increased costs, the renovation work on the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel continues. 

On Thursday, Transport Quebec revealed work completed on one of the two tubes of the tunnel and provided an update on the price of the project, which will now cost close to $2.8 billion — significantly more than the $1.4 billion estimation in 2022. 

“It’s a colossal undertaking. There are a lot of people working on this project, from the contractor, the ministry, and the consultants,” said Martin Giroux, the director general of Greater Montreal Major Projects for Transport Québec.

Work began in 2020 on the tunnel that runs under the Saint Lawrence River connecting Montreal’s Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisoneuve borough to the south shore in Longueuil.

“The work of the tunnel was actually aimed at repairing the structure to ensure its viability and also to ensure fire protection,” said Giroux.

Renovations completed on the south tunnel include repaired concrete walls as well as upgrades to the lighting, cameras, and ventilation systems. This work will be repeated on the north tunnel.

“The major work that needs to be done is exactly the same work in the north tunnel, starting by demolishing the concrete, the damaged concrete, and then the recasting, the same process, the electro-mechanical, exactly the same job that we did on this one, but quicker,” explained Stéphane Campedelli, the project director with Renouveau La Fontaine.

Construction work this weekend in the tunnel is forcing the closure of the lane towards the South Shore from Friday at 11 p.m. until Monday at 5 a.m. Overnight closures of the tunnel going in the direction to Montreal are also scheduled this Friday at 11 p.m. to Saturday at 8 a.m. and again later on Saturday at 11 p.m. to Sunday at 9 a.m. 

Lane closures are also expected on the weekend of May 2, with traffic to the South Shore closed over two nights, and the lanes to Montreal closed for the weekend.

“We are very aware that the construction work will cause inconvenience to the population, to those who have to travel. We have implemented several mitigation measures,” said Giroux.

“So, we encourage people to use the various measures we have put in place. We have free shuttles that leave from the South Shore to Montreal. There are river shuttles, there are Bixi networks.”

After these closures, three of six tunnel lanes will remain open, one toward the South Shore, two toward Montreal, until fall of 2026. All of the renovation work on the La Fontaine tunnel is scheduled to be completed in 2027. 

“Yes, I’m confident. The system is very motivated. There’s a lot of energy in the team, so I’m confident that we’ll manage that,” said Campedelli.