'The worst is behind us:' Major ramps set to reopen on Turcot Interchange

With over 900 construction workers on the site and major ramps reopening this fall, construction of the Turcot Interchange is nearly 80 per cent done, Quebec's junior Transport Minister Chantal Rouleau announced Thursday.

The $3.67-billion construction project is slated to finish by the end of 2020.

"I want to thank all the citizens, the neighbours, for their patience, the people who were jammed in traffic, it was very important to us to have the best communication with the people," Rouleau said. 

One of the major ramps, linking Highway 15 North to Highway 20 West, will be open as of Aug. 26.

Later this year, they will also be opening:

• A ramp from Highway 20 East toward Highway 15 North.
• A ramp from Highway 15 South toward Highway 20 West.
• A new entrance to Highway 15 North from the Saint-Jacques Bridge.

"The whole Turcot project is about maintaining traffic," said Olivier Beaulieu, the deputy project director of KPH Turcot. 

Drivers had been forced to take a long detour through residential roads as the interchange was rebuilt. 

"That new opening that's starting on Monday, it's really going to help the traffic in this area." 

A year ago, most of the old structure still needed to be dismantled and that was the biggest phase of the project, Beaulieu said.

Now, over 99 per cent of the old structure has been dismantled. 

"The worst is behind us," he said.

"Now that the dismantling is all completed, we're really in a closing phase."