As Île-aux-Tourtes bridge repairs plod on, merchants navigate troubled waters

The story of the Île-aux-Tourtes bridge is like an epic novel, full of highs and lows, victories and defeats (and cracks), and an ending — in the form of a replacement for the major east-west link off the island of Montreal — still hundreds of pages away.

Awaiting that conclusion (Quebec's Transport Ministry says the first phase of a new bridge will open in 2026), commuters and business owners are currently contending with various lane reductions and outright closures so that crews can perform repairs on the aging bridge.

The latest complete closure, starting Friday at 11 p.m. and running until Monday at 5 a.m., was announced on Tuesday.

"It's devastating to our business," said Sabrina Décarie, co-owner of the Pizza 900 restaurant in Vaudreuil-Dorion, located just off Highway 40, a stone's throw from the bridge. "Especially this time of year, where the restaurant should be full, people getting ready for the holidays, celebrating."

At midday Friday, the pizzeria was nearly empty. Decarie said when the phone rings, it's bad news, people reducing their numbers or cancelling altogether. "All I see online is people saying 'Don't come to Vaudreuil,'" she said.

When the phone rings at Sabrina Décarie's Pizza 900 location in Vaudreuil-Dorion, it's bad news: a cancellation or a reduction in the size of a booking, she says. (Kwabena Oduro/CBC)

Tense present, murky future

The story is similar for nearly every merchant in Vaudreuil-Dorion and other communities west of the island, whose customer base includes a significant chunk of people who drive from Montreal: business is bad, and the uncertainty looking ahead is worrisome.

"Imagine the two biggest weekends for the commercial zone, for the buyers and sellers, are this weekend and next weekend," said Guy Pilon, Vaudreuil-Dorion's mayor and the president of Développement Vaudreuil-Soulanges, the business development agency for the regional municipality. "If they close the bridge two times, it's very, very bad news."

Business owners have told him their sales are down 20, 30, 40 percent, Pilon said.

Barbara Kunduth, who owns three restaurants in the area, said she's cashing RRSPs to make payroll for her staff — on one of the worst recent days sales were down 70 percent from the previous year.

She said even locals are avoiding the area because traffic is so bad when the bridge is partially open. Last-minute closure announcements leave no room to reduce staff or orders from suppliers .

"You're forecasting, planning for the weekend, and how much you're going to sell and then all of a sudden you're selling half," she said.

The Ministry of Transport is aware that residents and merchants are suffering because of the work, said spokesperson Sarah Bensadoun. She said teams are working around the clock and will work through the holiday season to minimize the impact as much as possible.

"We might have other weekend and night closures," she said, but she noted these are not yet confirmed, including rumour of a second straight weekend shutdown.

Meanwhile, officials have added a number of measures to make getting around the area easier:

• Commuters will be offered free tickets to use the train at the Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Baie D'Urfe, Dorion, Pincourt, Hudson, Vaudreuil and Île-Perrot stations, including transfers to bus, metro and REM.

• There will also be free EXO buses in the La Presqu'Ile sector — the off-island suburbs.

• The 212 and 411 STM buses, which run in the West Island, will also be free.

Showing its age

Built in 1965, the Île-aux-Tourtes bridge has seen increasing traffic over the years, with the frequency of repair work perhaps reasonable for a structure on the verge of turning 60.

Starting in the early 1990s, major repair work became a regular part of the narrative.

In May 2021, the entire bridge was abruptly shut after crews discovered that steel rods being used to reinforce the structure had been damaged.

Around a year ago, a lane was closed after cracks were discovered, a scenario repeated around a month ago. A week later, the entire bridge was closed for the weekend starting on Friday, Nov. 24. Three lanes reopened the following week, but that was reduced to a single lane in each direction as of midnight Dec. 1.

On Dec. 12, Transport Ministry officials said it would be closed completely again this weekend.

Work on the $2.3-billion replacement bridge has already begun, Bensadoun said.

The wait for a new bridge and the uncertainty about construction on the current one mean restaurant owner Themis Sotiropoulos is considering moving to a new location. (Kwabena Oduro/CBC)

'We need help, now and long term'

Mayor Pilon says the full impact on local businesses will be clear in January. And while he hopes the ongoing repairs will mean the bridge will be issue-free in the near term, he's not confident.

"We don't know," he said. "The winter hasn't even started."

In the chapters ahead, other business owners see more pain and a long wait before a hopefully happy ending.

"We need help, now, and long term," said Pizza 900's Decarie. "We've heard 2026, 2029. This is going to be an issue for many many years. This is our livelihood."

For Themis Sotiropoulos, the owner of Souvlaki Bar, a business in the same commercial strip as Pizza 900, the 2026 timeline for the first phase of the new bridge and the unpredictability of construction on the existing one means he's considering moving his business.

"It really makes no sense to be here anymore," he said. "Anywhere but here. Pick a location, I think it'll do better."