Upper/Middle St. Lawrence River Mini-Meet, 30-31 Aug. 2013

[Dr Frankenstein]

For Labour Day weekend, Anthony (duke87) came up to Montreal to visit his cousin (Serge, an urban planning student with interest in public transit and trains, to which roads are a tangent interest). This triggered a spontaneous, improvised and rather lengthy mini-meet, which extended over two days.

Friday, 30 August

We (duke87, his cousin and I) met up shortly after his arrival on Friday night and just after a quick but intense thunderstorm for a poutine at Chez Grégoire in Mercier, on Hwy 138, just southwest of the City. I left my car at the rather bumpy AMT park & ride in Mercier, and we got some ice cream in DQ. Then we hit the road.

The first stop was a handful of kilometres down 138 WB, where we visited Pont Turcot in Très-Saint-Sacrement (near Howick), a bridge over the Chateauguay River built in 1887 and restored in 2010, the only remaining example of a Macquet parabolic riveted truss bridge in North America. This also allowed Anthony to add the Haut-Saint-Laurent RCM (county) to his mob-rule list, the southwesternmost county in Québec.

We then continued up Rang du Dix into Saint-Étienne-de-Beauharnois, then west to Beauharnois on Hwy 236 to clinch the new alignment which opened at the same time as the A-30 extension. After that, it was on Hwy 132 EB to fill some gaps that Anthony had left to clinch, and continued on 138 into Montreal until it leaves St. Jacques Street. After a brief stop at his cousin's apartment, it was north on Décarie and A-15, then A-40 WB to Sherbrooke St., back on 138 which we followed into Repentigny before hitting A-640, Montreal's northern bypass, to get a clinch of it. We came back on our tracks then down on A-13 to clinch A-440 and cross the A-25 bridge for free due to our foreign plates. Back on A-40 WB, we go down Pie-IX Blvd until Viger Ave. to get on A-720, heading back home.

Saturday, 31 August

I met up around noon with Thomas Westphal, a German roadgeek currently living north of Montreal. After driving around Vaudreuil-Dorion and Montreal's West Island area, we met up again with Anthony, Serge and Matt who had just woke up. The first leg was a full clinch of A-30, from A-20 in Vaudreuil-Dorion to Sorel-Tracy, then onto Hwys 132 and 122 to A-20/A-55. We clinched A-955, then went back north onto A-55 to clinch the part that Anthony was missing from A-20 to its northern terminus, not without getting on A-30 again to drive the remaining isolated section which serves as a Hwy 132 bypass around Bécancour, completing the clinch. Back on A-55 NB and across Pont Laviolette into Trois-Rivières, we stopped in Parc Laviolette to get the group photo.


Left to right: Serge (NY), Matt (QC), Anthony (NY), Carl (yours truly, QC), Thomas (D).

After spending one minute flat on the swings in the park, we got back in our cars and continued north on A-55 until its terminus, where we got back down through Shawinigan on Hwy 153, crossing Rivière Saint-Maurice on Pont de Grand-Mère, an early suspension bridge from 1928 and one of the longest of its type at the time. We stopped at a Couche-Tard store in downtown Shawinigan to get gas and something to eat and we got back on A-55 SB via Boulevard Hubert-Biermans, then on A-40 WB to get back home. My car went straight home on the South Shore via A-25 in Montreal, A-20, Hwys 134 and 116 in Longueuil, then A-30, since I had to grab my stuff and leave for Magog that night. Anthony's car clinched A-31 in Joliette on the way back and went for some Lafleur's in LaSalle before going back home in Montreal.

Anthony can follow up with his Sunday route, if there was any.

EDIT: Corrections to the Friday route. I shouldn't have written this from memory at 11 PM several days later.

[Duke87]

Heh. Didn't touch my car on Sunday. Serge and I just poked around the city on foot and via public transit... including riding the Deux-Montagnes AMT line from from end to end and back.

But there is so much more to this saga for me...

Thursday night I left work in Manhattan and went to Penn Station to catch an Amtrak train to Wilmington (DE). That train ended up being an hour and a half late. When I got there my uncle met me at the train station and took me back to his place where my newly fixed car was waiting for me. (my cousin - different cousin - had smashed up one of my doors a couple weeks prior while I was there)

Friday morning I left at about 8 AM and just started driving north... over the Del Mem Br, up the Jersey Turnpike, up the Parkway, up NJ 17, and up the Thruway to exit 18. From there I jumped over to US 9W and drove that up to Albany, thus clinching it. Along the way, I stopped and got some photos of the suspension bridge in Kingston on old US 9W. I then got back on I-87 and drove the rest of the way to Canada. Border crossing was the best ever - drove right up to an open slot, no line, and after only 2 quick questions, I was cleared to enter Canada in basically 15 seconds. I then took A-15 up but got off to take A-30/A-730/QC-132 over to Pont Honore-Mercier... because Pont Champlain is for suckers.

From there, see Carl's story above.

Today, I left Montreal at 9:30 in the morning. First step was to clinch A-520 (fun road). I then took A-20 and ON 401 all the way over to Thousand Islands and crossed back into the US there. Wait at the border was about 30 minutes but then after watching the car directly in front of mine get pulled for secondary, my entry was painless. From there I drove down to Watertown where I clinched I-781, making a quick illegal U-turn right before the gate so as to have it be a legit clinch. I then drove down US 11 to Syracuse, clinched I-481 and I-690, and kept driving down US 11 to Whitney Point (thus clinching it in New York).
The rest of my route home then was NY 79 east/south into PA 92 south, PA 171 south, PA 371 east, PA 670 south, US 6 east, PA 402 south, swing north to drive the new Marshalls Creek Bypass and re-clinch that segment of US 209, and then I-80 back to NYC.

When I got home I looked at my odometer and realized that I had driven 1700 miles since Friday morning. Yow!

[Alps]

Today, I left Montreal at 9:30 in the morning. First step was to clinch A-520 (fun road). I then took A-20 and ON 401 all the way over to Thousand Islands and crossed back into the US there. Wait at the border was about 30 minutes but then after watching the car directly in front of mine get pulled for secondary, my entry was painless. From there I drove down to Watertown where I clinched I-781, making a quick illegal U-turn right before the gate so as to have it be a legit clinch. I then drove down US 11 to Syracuse, clinched I-481 and I-690, and kept driving down US 11 to Whitney Point (thus clinching it in New York).
The rest of my route home then was NY 79 east/south into PA 92 south, PA 171 south, PA 371 east, PA 670 south, US 6 east, PA 402 south, swing north to drive the new Marshalls Creek Bypass and re-clinch that segment of US 209, and then I-80 back to NYC.

When I got home I looked at my odometer and realized that I had driven 1700 miles since Friday morning. Yow!

Is the I-781 U-turn signed as illegal? If not, I'd argue it's legit.

[vdeane]

Last I checked, all U-turns were illegal in NY unless signed otherwise.

[agentsteel53]

Last I checked, all U-turns were illegal in NY unless signed otherwise.

the whole state?  I thought it was just NYC.

[NE2]

http://www.dmv.ny.gov/dmanual/chapter05-manual.htm#mku-trn

You may never make a U-turn on a limited access expressway, even if paths connect your side of the expressway with the other side.

Assuming the DMV isn't lying (I can't find where in the law this is banned), the question is whether limited access continues all the way to the gate.

[vdeane]

Last I checked, all U-turns were illegal in NY unless signed otherwise.

the whole state?  I thought it was just NYC.

Yep - the whole state.

[NE2]

Last I checked, all U-turns were illegal in NY unless signed otherwise.

the whole state?  I thought it was just NYC.

Yep - the whole state.

Not according to the DMV link I posted, or state law:

No motor vehicle shall make a U turn upon any curve, or upon the approach to, or near the crest of a grade, where such motor vehicle cannot be seen by the driver of any other motor vehicle approaching from either direction within five hundred feet.

[vdeane]

The manual also says "do not attempt a u turn on a highway unless absolutely necessary" ("highway" in a driver's ed context usually means any road that isn't a city street), and given that I learned that U turns are the safest way to turn around, I can't imagine what else that statement could mean.  I've always been taught that U turns are illegal everywhere in any case.

[Janko Dialnice]

Anthony: You refer to A-520 as being a "fun road". I will be up in Montréal in a few weeks, and intend on clinching it. What do you mean by "fun"? If you are being sarcastic, what is wrong with that road? Just curious.

[oscar]

I would not consider the "U-turn" in front of the Fort Drum main gate to be a real U-turn -- more like a left turn, followed shortly by another left turn after you've passed the small parking lot in the median.

Anyway, by the time you get to the immediate gate area, you might be on Federal property already, so the general rule for U-turns on NY state highways might not apply in the first place. 

In any case, since both I and Duke87 did that move without getting pulled over by military or other police (after all, there are sentries on hand to rat you out, if you really were doing something illegal in the gate area), it seems probably legit to me

[NE2]

I would not consider the "U-turn" in front of the Fort Drum main gate to be a real U-turn -- more like a left turn, followed shortly by another left turn after you've passed the small parking lot in the median.

Yeah, if there's a parking lot there, it's no more a U-turn than coming off the GWB onto 178th and turning left twice to reach 179th. Doesn't mean the pigs won't make shit up though.

[Alps]

I would not consider the "U-turn" in front of the Fort Drum main gate to be a real U-turn -- more like a left turn, followed shortly by another left turn after you've passed the small parking lot in the median.

Yeah, if there's a parking lot there, it's no more a U-turn than coming off the GWB onto 178th and turning left twice to reach 179th. Doesn't mean the pigs won't make shit up though.

They'd rather you use this de facto U-turn than go to the gate and bother them.

[Duke87]

I would not consider the "U-turn" in front of the Fort Drum main gate to be a real U-turn -- more like a left turn, followed shortly by another left turn after you've passed the small parking lot in the median.

OK, see, that changes things a bit. I was looking as I was driving up and saw there might be a possible U-turn there but wasn't sure and didn't want to go there and find I had no choice but to pull into the gate. The U-turn I made was about 100 yards shy of that, across two pairs of double yellow lines with hatching between them. That is definitely illegal!

I also realize as I go to update CHM that I did not actually clinch I-690 since the ramps to the Thruway are considered part of it. Whoops! Will have to fix that next time I'm up there.

Anthony: You refer to A-520 as being a "fun road". I will be up in Montréal in a few weeks, and intend on clinching it. What do you mean by "fun"? If you are being sarcastic, what is wrong with that road? Just curious.

No sarcasm. It's a very interesting road aesthetically, due to the low grade nature over it. You've got two lanes plus narrow shoulders with a concrete barrier on each side. Directly across the left barrier is oncoming traffic. Directly across the right barrier is the frontage road which is level with you the whole way. The speed limit is only 70 but traffic is light and everyone does 90-100. Also adding to the quirkiness is that every other autoroute it meets - 20, 13, and 40 - lacks any direct high speed connection. You will encounter a traffic signal at each end.

It's basically a Jersey Freeway with an express/local setup.

[Alps]

I also realize as I go to update CHM that I did not actually clinch I-690 since the ramps to the Thruway are considered part of it. Whoops! Will have to fix that next time I'm up there.

I discovered last weekend that the Spaulding Turnpike technically follows the ramps to I-95, not entering Portsmouth Circle with US 4/NH 16.

[place-saint-henri]

Serge, Duke87's cousin here.

When we clinched the A-31 on Saturday we also made a quick but worthwhile short trip on the A-31Z which runs to Terre d'Alan (Alanland for you non French speakers). In Terre d'Alan there is a cloverleaf interchange that connects to the A-31F that runs to Eureka and Antarctica. 

Earlier when we clinched the A30, we passed the gentilly-2 nuclear power plant, recently decommissioned by our new government. That was cool to see in person.

Re: the A520, it is pretty much our Sheridan Expressway, albket with a little bit more purpose. I prefer the A720 although these two highways have nothing in common.

[webfil]

Darn it. Missed that. Hope you had a great time.

[Janko Dialnice]

Salut, Serge. Je vois que tu es nouveau à ce forum ci. Bienvenue chez nous! Enchanté de faire ta connaissance.

And for you anglophones (English-speakers), I just said that I noticed Serge is new, welcomed him to the forum, and said that I was glad to have met him.

[Duke87]

Darn it. Missed that. Hope you had a great time.

Definitely would have invited you if there were more forethought. The whole thing was very spur of the moment. Friday night we met Carl for dinner and then he was like "hey, wanna see a cool bridge?" and then we were like "hey, let's drive around a bit more". Saturday my original plan was just to drive the new A30... then I said "hey, wanna go to Sorel?" and Serge responded with "Let's go to Shawinigan!". The full extent of that trip was not known until literally five minutes before we left.

Ah well, next time!

And for you anglophones (English-speakers), I just said that I noticed Serge is new, welcomed him to the forum, and said that I was glad to have met him.

If you and Serge ever actually met in person it would be hilarious.