If you people who normally drive from Ontario to go to Quebec City and points east (such as New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI (Prince Edward Island) and Newfoundland & Labrador), you may often know that you have to go through the Island of Montreal – which is often congested – even outside of rush hour. Now, there is finally now a way to completely bypass the island. The Autoroute 30 bypass is designed to completely bypass Montreal by providing motorists with an alternative route. This new highway has been in the works as early as in the 1960s.
Portions of the now-defunct Autoroute 540 spur (linking from the Autoroute 40 junction all the way south to the Autoroute 20) will now be “re-designated” as “Autoroute 30″. The new Autoroute 30 will link Vaudreuil-Dorion, Les Cèdres, Beauharnois, Chateauguay, Candiac, and the South Shore communities will be served by this new highway. However, don’t expect a free ride to ride on this highway. This new highway will be “tolled”. While electronic tolling was considered (just like the Highway 407 in Ontario and the Autoroute 25 linking Montreal and Laval) along on making the new highway fully-tolled for its entire length, changes were made so that local access is maintained for residents living along the communities on where the new highway will go. In addition, a hybrid tolling system will be utilized – a traditional toll booth will be used (in which you have to slow down and stop to pay your toll). There will be some lanes on the toll booth for users who use transponders specifically designed for this new highway. The toll booth will be located north of the St. Lawrence River crossing.
The new toll road is constructed with a private-public partnership (P3) with the private owner assuming all tolls being collected for the financing, maintenance and operation of the new highway. After all tolls are collected, the private owner has a choice on either continue tolling or let the provincial government to buy the road for a cost. This will last for about 30 years.
As for toll rates, they cost $1.50CDN for cars and $1.15CDN per axle for trucks and other vehicles. To learn more about the new toll road, visit the A30 Express website at www.a30express.com.
Here’s a report from Global National (a news program on Global TV):
To finish this blog posting off, I’m leaving you with two music videos – “The Payoff” by Faber Drive and “City is ours” by Big Time Rush. The reason that I choosed “The Payoff” by Faber Drive is that all the efforts being made on addressing the traffic concerns along Greater Montreal is finally paying off – well almost. While many people hate the idea on having tolls on highways, this is made necessary to pay down all costs during the construction, operation and completion of the highway. (Faber Drive, if you are reading this, I know that I’m an awesome fan of the band, but does it “hurt” to use your music video on a blog posting like this? We’ll talk…)
As for the song “City is Ours” by Big Time Rush, I would imagine if someone drives along this new highway and films it – I wish this song should be used for it. If that sounds confusing, then who cares? I’m just kidding. But then again, I recently discovered Big Time Rush and they are a good band (they are from the USA, unlike Faber Drive – which they are from Canada, eh?)! Anyways, enjoy the videos, folks. Have a good weekend trying to get your family and friends gifts’ for this holiday season!
