A bottleneck that costs us every day

A dangerous, congested corridor

On the missing segment, 64,000 vehicles a day, more than 21.5 million a year, are forced to stop and start at nine traffic lights, soon to be ten. One vehicle in ten is a freight truck. This is one of the busiest stretches between Montréal and Toronto, yet it functions like a local street. The result: repeated collisions, increased risks for pedestrians and cyclists, and compromised emergency access, particularly in Terrasse-Vaudreuil. When the Île-aux-Tourtes Bridge is disrupted, traffic from Highway 40 spills over onto this corridor.

A bill that keeps climbing

Inaction has a price. Congestion, lost time and pollution already cost $32.5 million a year — a bill that will reach $913 million over 20 years. Add $230 million in lost tax revenue because the Harwood sector cannot be redeveloped, and the cost of the status quo climbs to $1.1 billion. This figure does not even account for the economic spinoffs of the future regional hospital. Meanwhile, some businesses are choosing to set up elsewhere, sometimes across the border in Ontario.

Pressure that will only keep growing

Vaudreuil-Soulanges’ population has grown by 62% since 2001 and is expected to increase by nearly another 20% by 2041. The future regional hospital alone will generate 3,500 direct jobs and 1,500 indirect jobs, in addition to the 1,600 new households expected as early as 2027. With work on the Île-aux-Tourtes Bridge continuing until 2030, Highway 20 becomes an increasingly critical link to the rest of Canada. Every year of delay adds millions to the cost.