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Quebec's Highways

Started by Stojko, February 04, 2010, 06:56:42 PM

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Fugazi

Thanks for the input! So far the longest undisputed triplexes would be A-530/R-132/R-201 and R-216/269/271 at about 5 km each. The closest thing to a quadruplex would be A-20/A-55/R-143/TCH, depending on whether you consider TCH to be a separate route since it doesn't have a number or any exclusive mileage in Quebec.


Richard3

What about news from Rivière-du-Loup area?

The QC-185, connecting Rivière-du-Loup, QC to New Brunswick, is slowly but surely turning into A-85.  The last 40-km (25-mile) section of QC-185 was cut into seven segments to be transformed into a four-lane divided freeway, and works are begun on segments 1, 2, 3 and 6.  The opening of those segments will begin in 2021 (segments 1 and 3, 2022 for segments 2 and 6), and the whole project is supposed to be finished by 2025.

https://www.transports.gouv.qc.ca/fr/projets-infrastructures/reseau-routier/projets-routiers/BSL-Gaspesie-IDLM/autoroute-85-claude-bechard/Documents/Documentation/Cartes/carte-phase-III.pdf

Sorry, this document is only available in French.
- How many people are working in here?
- About 20%.

- What Quebec highways and Montreal Canadiens have in common?
- Rebuilding.

States/provinces/territories I didn't went in: AB, AK, AL, BC, HI, KS, LA, MB, MN, MS, MT, ND, NL, NT, NU, RI, SD, SK, WA, WI, YT.  Well, I still have some job to do!

Dougtone

I have written a blog article about the Samuel de Champlain Bridge in Montreal, both old and new. History, photos and personal experience are reflected in this write-up.

https://www.gribblenation.org/2020/02/champlain-bridge-old-and-new.html

hurricanehink

Quote from: Richard3 on December 08, 2019, 04:49:11 AM
What about news from Rivière-du-Loup area?

The QC-185, connecting Rivière-du-Loup, QC to New Brunswick, is slowly but surely turning into A-85.  The last 40-km (25-mile) section of QC-185 was cut into seven segments to be transformed into a four-lane divided freeway, and works are begun on segments 1, 2, 3 and 6.  The opening of those segments will begin in 2021 (segments 1 and 3, 2022 for segments 2 and 6), and the whole project is supposed to be finished by 2025.

https://www.transports.gouv.qc.ca/fr/projets-infrastructures/reseau-routier/projets-routiers/BSL-Gaspesie-IDLM/autoroute-85-claude-bechard/Documents/Documentation/Cartes/carte-phase-III.pdf

Sorry, this document is only available in French.

When Autoroute 85 is done, you'll be able to travel on a divided highway from Windsor, ON to Aulds Cove, NS, a distance of 1376 mi (2,214 km). In a few years, you'll have an even longer continuous dive when construction finishes its way to Sudbury, ON.

webfil

#454
I moved two months ago to my parents' native region, south of Québec along Chaudière river valley. I'm happy to see that signs that were already old in my 90's childhood are still standing. Here is a bulk collection of old and odd found signs.


"Route du Président-Kennedy" sign leaving Vallée-Jonction on Route 173 North (Google Streetview)

Route 173 (Route 23 or Lévis-Jackman highway at the time) was designated "Route du Président-Kennedy" by Order in Council from the Lieutenant-Governor one week after John F. Kennedy's death in 1963, as an hommage from a Chief of State to fallen one (Lieutenant-Governor is the executive Chief of State for the Province, representing its Queen in Right).

QuoteCONCERNING the hommage of the population of Quebec to the memory of President Kennedy. 
WHEREAS the brutal death of the young and brilliant American Chief of State, President John F. Kennedy, deeply affected the population of Quebec; 
WHEREAS it is deemed expedient to recall his memory by giving his name to the Levis-Jackman highway, which is the most direct road between the capital of the Province and the birthplace of President Kennedy in New England.
IT IS THEREFORE ORDER, upon the proposition of the Prime Minister :
THAT, in hommage to the memory of President John F. Kennedy, the Levis-Jackman highway shall henceforth be designated under the name of "President Kennedy".
Gazette officielle de Québec, Vol. 95, No. 95 ― December 4th 1963

That happened 5 years prior to the creation of the Québec Toponymy Commission, responsible for the officialisation of place naming in the province. It is one of the very few highways that was attributed a transmunicipal, provincial designation and maintains it as of today. This sign is plausibly one of the original that were put up in the sixties, as the fleur-de-lys design notably dated, and most certainly predated 1977.
Here are the equivalents in 80-90's and 2000-2010's versions, and handful of kilometres away from the first one.


Route 173 South, leaving Sainte-Marie (Google Streetview)


Route 173 South, leaving Vallée-Jonction (Google Streetview)


Very old railroad crossing + 2 voies | 2 tracks signs, probably dating from the 50's on Jean-Marie-Rousseau boulevard in Vallée (Google Streeview)

Formerly known as L'Enfant-Jésus parish or Beauce-Jonction, Vallée-Jonction, as it name indicates, was once a major railroad junction on the Québec Central (a Canadian Pacific division), dispatching lumber, paper, asbestos, marble, granite, oil, cattle and passenger trains from Maine and Lac-Mégantic, Saint-Georges and Lac-Frontière, as well as Sherbrooke and Thetford Mines to Lévis, Québec City and Montréal.

The yard used to span on both sides of Chaudière river, attracting factories, slaughterhouses and leather among them.


Sheds, shops and roundhouse in 1954 (J.W.Michaud)

The wood and stone station from the late 1890's is still standing, but most of the yard buildings are long gone. The railroad folded in 1999. Some trains operated by a local operator from Tring-Jonction ran in the 2000's without much success. The ROW and rails are now owned by MTQ. Chemin de fer Sartigan, a shortline, is operating grain and various goods convoys between Scott-Jonction and Joffre (Charny).


"Reduced pre-warning time" sign near grain terminal in Scott (Google Streetview)

The downfall of railroad transport has seen the rise of trucking in the region, in spite of the steep slopes of Chaudière valley and surrounding hills.


Narrative steep hill advisory sign on route 108 East entering Beauceville, at the brake checking station (Google Streetview)


Narrative steep hill advisory sign on route 112 West entering Vallée-Jonction, at the brake checking station

The route 112 (Cap boulevard) hill in Vallée was enlarged to 4 lanes and improved (a gravel bed was added at the bottom, signage was replaced) following multiple accidents at the junction of route 112 and route 173 involving runaway swine trucks. Load is now limited to 15 metric tonnes downhill. Most cattle trucks now use exits 95 and 72 from A-73, and then route 173 to deliver to the slaughterhouse.


No truck sign on A-73 near Vallée-Jonction (Google Streetview)

Stephane Dumas

I founded by luck this blog post who have some maps showing the ROW of A-25 extension to Rawdon.
https://transportologie.wordpress.com/2018/10/08/prolongement-de-lautoroute-25/

Alps

Quote from: Stephane Dumas on May 06, 2020, 05:56:33 PM
I founded by luck this blog post who have some maps showing the ROW of A-25 extension to Rawdon.
https://transportologie.wordpress.com/2018/10/08/prolongement-de-lautoroute-25/
Wow, that would make A-25 rival A-15 if it connected to the existing 4-lane divided 125 up that way. I wonder how much of this is actually Autoroute vs. just dualizing the existing highway (I'm thinking once you stop seeing interchanges, it's not grade separated).

Stephane Dumas

Quote from: Alps on May 06, 2020, 06:24:49 PM
Quote from: Stephane Dumas on May 06, 2020, 05:56:33 PM
I founded by luck this blog post who have some maps showing the ROW of A-25 extension to Rawdon.
https://transportologie.wordpress.com/2018/10/08/prolongement-de-lautoroute-25/
Wow, that would make A-25 rival A-15 if it connected to the existing 4-lane divided 125 up that way. I wonder how much of this is actually Autoroute vs. just dualizing the existing highway (I'm thinking once you stop seeing interchanges, it's not grade separated).

I don't think A-25 was to rival A-15 since it would desserve a different area. Northwest of Rawdon PQ-125 would be 4-laned like PQ-117 north of Ste-Agathe-des-Monts until the current orphaned 4-laned divided gap.

Stephane Dumas

Ther's a bit more about the defunct A-51, it was planned to have a short multiplex with A-30 and span the St. Lawrence River.
https://transportologie.wordpress.com/2018/09/28/autoroute-51/
http://www.bv.transports.gouv.qc.ca/mono/0296194/01_Rapport.pdf


Stephane Dumas

I saw a old French report about Quebec roads project done in 1971-72.
http://www.bv.transports.gouv.qc.ca/per/1143129/01_1971_1972.pdf

Stephane Dumas

Here a drone video showing the progress of Turcot interchange reconstruction filmed on May 31.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzgJhR4MqTU

Stephane Dumas


MikeTheActuary


Stephane Dumas

There's lots of photos of the upgrade of TCH-185 into A-85 on Skyscraperpage forum. Beware of the loading, some of these photos are big.
https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/showpost.php?p=9006147&postcount=8484

mrsman

This may be a silly question, but why are the road signs bilingual in Ontario, but only in French in Quebec?

Stephane Dumas

Quote from: mrsman on August 12, 2020, 04:50:50 PM
This may be a silly question, but why are the road signs bilingual in Ontario, but only in French in Quebec?

There's is bilingual road signs in Quebec mainly in Montreal.  The population of Quebec is mainly francophone. https://www.google.com/maps/@45.4671143,-73.4959306,3a,37.5y,325.43h,98.33t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s2zHOGqqrIhZscvZtgFhBOQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

In some Indian Reservations, there's some stop signs who are trilingual like this one at Odanak near Pierreville.
https://www.google.com/maps/@46.0716909,-72.8206668,3a,75y,307.47h,84.4t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sUwfYx2W9HYmvb-lKm0d2QA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

jcroyer80

I posted this on the Vermont board as well, but it sounds like today was the groundbreaking for the next section (Segment 3) of A35 towards the Vermont border.  After this section, all that is left is the final 2.8 mile stretch.

https://governor.vermont.gov/press-release/governor-phil-scott-congratulates-quebec-autoroute-35-groundbreaking

MikeTheActuary

Quote from: Stephane Dumas on August 12, 2020, 04:59:57 PM
There's is bilingual road signs in Quebec mainly in Montreal.  The population of Quebec is mainly francophone. https://www.google.com/maps/@45.4671143,-73.4959306,3a,37.5y,325.43h,98.33t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s2zHOGqqrIhZscvZtgFhBOQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

I thought that on MTQ-maintained highways, signage was only in French, but signage on the new Pont Champlain was bilingual because it was a federal project.  And then you get bilingual (or trilingual) signage on local roads in areas with a significant non-Francophone population.

oscar

Quote from: MikeTheActuary on August 27, 2020, 10:42:10 PM
Quote from: Stephane Dumas on August 12, 2020, 04:59:57 PM
There's is bilingual road signs in Quebec mainly in Montreal.  The population of Quebec is mainly francophone. https://www.google.com/maps/@45.4671143,-73.4959306,3a,37.5y,325.43h,98.33t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s2zHOGqqrIhZscvZtgFhBOQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

I thought that on MTQ-maintained highways, signage was only in French, but signage on the new Pont Champlain was bilingual because it was a federal project.  And then you get bilingual (or trilingual) signage on local roads in areas with a significant non-Francophone population.

In far northern Quebec, sometimes the bilingual signage is only in English and Inuktitut, no French. See https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=13366.0
my Hot Springs and Highways pages, with links to my roads sites:
http://www.alaskaroads.com/home.html

cbeach40

Quote from: mrsman on August 12, 2020, 04:50:50 PM
This may be a silly question, but why are the road signs bilingual in Ontario, but only in French in Quebec?

For Québec there are a near infinite number of political, cultural, and historical issues was to why the province resists non-French signage. There's been centuries of political and literal bloodshed over the issue. Road signs are just a tiny part of it.

Ontario is more straightforward - there is a large Franco-Ontarian population in some parts of the province. In those areas the province guarantees by law provincial government services are to be available in both English and French. The legal interpretation of this has dictated that in those areas highway signs fall under the umbrella of government services.

Now, the system is not without its flaws, in that the threshold seems rather low in some cases, the areas designated are done so by municipal boundary (current or historic), and that for through travel on a highway one can move in and out of designated areas relatively quickly. But, the legal precedent has been set, so here we are. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
and waterrrrrrr!

J N Winkler

Quote from: MikeTheActuary on August 27, 2020, 10:42:10 PMI thought that on MTQ-maintained highways, signage was only in French, but signage on the new Pont Champlain was bilingual because it was a federal project.  And then you get bilingual (or trilingual) signage on local roads in areas with a significant non-Francophone population.

That is more or less my understanding, though I remember bilingual signs on the autoroutes in Montréal in 1998 (most, if not all, of which are under MTQ jurisdiction) that have since been replaced with French-only signs.

An interesting quirk is that diamond-shaped permanent (yellow background) warning signs with word messages are not provided for in MTQ standards.  This means word-only signs like "Lentement" ("Slow") are usually local agency installs.
"It is necessary to spend a hundred lire now to save a thousand lire later."--Piero Puricelli, explaining the need for a first-class road system to Benito Mussolini

Stephane Dumas

I digged and explored the Wayback Machine and I founded this renmant of one of the earlier sites devoted to Quebec roads.
https://web.archive.org/web/19970418063449/http://www.transport.polymtl.ca/apaq/titre.htm

Stephane Dumas


webfil

#474
A-410 is expected to be completed in the next few weeks. All that's missing are a few sings and guardrails. The remaining 3 kilometres in between exits 13 and 16 consist of the Lennoxville by-pass.
Openstreetmap has the routing right. https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=15/45.3603/-71.8488
Video taken in october :

In the same area, MTQ surprisingly announced 10.6 M$ for the overhaul of route 257 between La Patrie and Weedon, which is a local road with gravel sections (downloaded in 93 but still a numbered route, as are many 2xx routes in that area). MTQ recently boosted its local road maintenance fund, so there is more and more work on the downloaded routes paid for by the MTQ.



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