Quick question on QC 276 history. I get why it's been routed around St-Joseph-de-Beauce... or maybe I don't REALLY get it, but I can at least see a reason one might give... but how long ago was that done? Is it as old as the QC 173 bypass? What makes them more special than every other town that has a route on their main street?
The R-173 bypass around Saint-Joseph was staged; the first stretch to open was the northern one around 1975-1978 (
topo map). The whole ROW would have been expropriated by then. In 1981, the agricultural land protection board had set the limit for the agricultural zone along the lot (
agricultural zone map).
Plans in the
1986 feasibility study for a new bridge in Saint-Joseph show the bypass fully open around Saint-Joseph, and R-276 still routed along Côte Taschereau west of the bypass. Options for the location of a new bridge were multiple; rerouting was thus already in the cards, as the bridge carries R-276 east and west of the river (see edit note below).
In the 1990's, a series of accidents involving runaway trucks at the bottom of high-grade slopes in the core of towns along the Chaudière, most notably Vallée-Jonction (six in less than two years, next to a school and a restaurant, one including a 42,000-litre propane truck;
Jan. 1990,
Dec. 1990,
May 1991,
Aug. 1992) and Saint-Joseph (three in five years, including two beer trucks; 1992,
Jun. 1994,
Feb. 1997), as well as the southern extension of A-73 to R-276, stressed the need for a complete reorganization of the truck routes south of Sainte-Marie. When the A-73 was opened between Sainte-Marie and Vallée-Jonction, trucks were prohibited because of the perilous R-112/R-173 intersection. The opening of A-73 up to R-276 was a game-changer.
Even though it is a R-2xx, R-276 from A-73 to R-112 became a primary highway acting as the R-112 West truck route coming from A-73. Primary highways have higher standards (longitudinal and profile slopings, lane widths, shouldering vs ratings, design of intersections, etc.) in the MTQ road design manual. That could explain why the southeast leg of the Saint-Joseph bypass was preferred to the other one, as the intersection of Avenue du Palais Nord and R-173 is at the bottom of a 7 % slope following a subpar curve (75 km/h recommended speed). As R-276 is an alternate route for trucks heavier than 15 tonnes that are bound R-112 west from A-73 (see also
this post), it seems logical that the truck route follows the path with the least risks of what it's substituting. The 1997 article I've linked states that the Côte Taschereau west of R-173 was then already prohibited for trucks. Following that crash, the mayor announced the construction of a
concrete structure precluding the passage of trucks as well as a 4000 % surge in fines for law-breaking truckers. Trucks were therefore already banned on Côte Taschereau before the 1997 accident, so R-276 would have already been rerouted.
tl;dr
By my guesstimate, R-276 would have been rerouted at the construction of A-73 (1992) to avoid a tricky intersection in downtown Saint-Joseph, as it would have become R-112 truck route, which itself is known to be perilous because of a hazardous T intersection at the bottom of a hill.
EDIT : a new bridge in Saint-Joseph is under opportunity study, while the existing one is receiving palliative care. In other words, a new routing for R-276 is considered. The location of the new bridge is not yet known. The 1986 opportunity study and feasibility studies ultimately recommended a downtown bridge (either a renovation of the existing or a new one, next to it), but these propositions still had a high score and implied a R-112 or R-276 rerouting :
- New highway midway between Vallée and Saint-Joseph, running between R-112/R-276 intersection in Saint-Frédéric and A-73 in Saint-Joseph, along Route Cyrille-Giguère east of the Chaudière;
- Extension of the Saint-Joseph bypass in the northwest quadrant on an elevated highway between R-173 somewhere north of Avenue Robert-Cliche intersection, and Route des Fermes/Rang des Érables intersection.
The bridge is closed pretty much every year, as
R-276 west of it is subject to floodings.
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Topic: Quebec's Highways (Read 213087 times)