Here are my photos from earlier this month of the two new A-85 segments. One segment is from the NB/QC border to north of Degelis, and the other is from south of exit 29 near Notre-Dame-du-Lac to north of exit 47 in St-Louis-du-Ha! Ha! I also took some photos of the construction between the two segments, which is planned to fill the gap between the two new segments by December 2015. (No work underway to extend A-85 north of St-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!, to fill in the remaining gap with the Riviere-du-Loup segment.) The photos are roughly in km-marker order, which starts at the NB/QC border since A-85 is signed as a north-south route even though its actual direction is more west-east.
^ A-85 and TCH markers northbound, at km 8. This isn't the first set of markers entering from New Brunswick, but it is conveniently right next to a km-marker which confirms the location.
^ This sign is on Traverse Johnny-Griffin eastbound, at the exit 7 underpass. The road connects A-85 to the old TCH route, now called Av. de la Madawaska southeast of Degelis. The Johnny-Griffin/Madawaska intersection is about at the point where the old route is closest to the new route; there are much wider gaps between the old and new routes both north and south of this intersection. Traverse Johnny-Griffin also connects A-85 to the Av. du Longeron frontage road along the southbound lanes, which continues north to exits 12 and 14.
^ This photo, showing A-85 signage southbound on the overhead sign, was taken at exit 12 for Rue Industrielle and the Av. du Longeron frontage road. Edmundston would've been a logical control city (it's used elsewhere on A-85), but the "control province" was used here instead. Exit 12, and exits 1 (northbound-only, just north of the NB/QC border) and 7, are on the new A-85 roadway south of Degelis, which ties into the old route near exit 14 for QC 295.
The short new roadway on the New Brunswick side of the border, to tie in the new A-85 segment with NB's part of the TCH, also has a new southbound-only exit 1, to match up with the new northbound-only exit 1 on the Quebec side. This oddity, somewhat like the exit 2s on each side of the new US 93 bridge between Nevada and Arizona, is from Quebec treating A-85 and the rest of the TCH south of A-20 as a north-south route, while New Brunswick treats TCH 2 as a west-east route. One could also treat the closely spaced exit 1s as part of a single interchange, ignoring the provincial border running through it.
^ Heading back northbound is this curious set of signs north of the QC 295 overpass at the RIRO for Av. Principale into downtown Degelis. The last time the GMSV camera car drove through (the highway then was freeway at this location, before the new A-85 roadway was opened southeast of Degelis), the RIRO used to be signed as exit 15. But while its new exit number is now shared with exit 14 southbound for QC 295, there's no mention of QC 295 here (you can get to QC 295 from here, but only via a tedious slog through downtown Degelis). Also new to this sign assembly is the overhead sign showing the control city of Riviere-du-Loup added a route marker, but for QC 185 rather than A-85. There is a freestanding A-85 route marker north of this interchange, and the twinned limited-access highway continues to near km 19 (no additional exits yet north of exit 14), but this new signage leaves unclear for now whether the highway north of Degelis is part of A-85.
Around km 19, the highway turns into a two-lane roadway with twinning construction underway until near km 24, and if there was route signage between km 19 and exit 29, it was only as QC 185. From near km 24 to just south of exit 29, the construction shifts to a new-alignment route very close to and southwest of the existing route.
^ These three construction zone photos are from the Rte. St-Benoit overpass, reached by a turnoff from the old route still in service near km 24.6. The first two photos are views of the new alignment southbound, with the second a closeup focusing on the tie-in area between the new and old alignments near km 24. The third photo is of the new alignment northbound. The construction includes a new interchange with Rte. St-Benoit, though I don't know what will be the new exit number.
^ This is the first exit sign for the new A-85 segments southbound, approaching exit 47 for St-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!, before twinning starts just north of that exit. I pulled off the new freeway here hoping to score some postcards to send my nieces from there. Alas, it's a fairly small town with no visitor centre or other effort to exploit its funny name. It turned out to be another one of those towns not nearly as interesting as its name.
There is an A-85 route marker northbound just north of exit 47 (the first corresponding southbound A-85 marker is near km 47.3, just south of exit 47). However, almost immediately thereafter the highway changes from four-lane divided controlled-access, to two lanes undivided with at-grade intersections. The first such intersection north of exit 47, at Ch. de la Savane (not counting the driveway shown in the above photo), has signage indicating that the highway remains QC 185 in both directions.
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Topic: Autoroute 85 Status? (Read 48933 times)