Tunnel de la mort
45°32′28″N 73°34′25″W / 45.54111°N 73.57361°W
"Tunnel de la mort" (Tunnel of Death) is the informal name given, in Montreal, to the notoriously dangerous intersection of Rue d'Iberville and Boulevard Saint-Joseph, at the border of the Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie and Plateau-Mont-Royal boroughs. The intersection owes this name to the dangerously poor visibility caused by the three railway overpasses immediately to the north, east, and west of it,[fn 1] and by concrete retaining walls on all four corners. More than 250 serious accidents were reported at that intersection between 1992 and 2002.[1][2]
Both streets narrow at the approach of this intersection. The east-west Boulevard Saint-Joseph, elsewhere six lanes wide, narrows to four lanes in the vicinity of the Tunnel de la Mort. The four-lane Rue d'Iberville narrows to two lanes in the underpass just north of the intersection before widening again to the south and splitting into two four-lane one-way streets, Iberville (southbound) and Frontenac (northbound). As part of an effort to make the intersection safer, advance signals were installed on the Iberville north and Saint-Joseph east approaches, where flashing yellow lights warn motorists that they are about to come to a red light. All left turns are forbidden at the intersection.
The configuration of this intersection makes it nearly impossible for police to enforce traffic laws.[3] In September 2001, then-minister of transportation Guy Chevrette cited this particular intersection as an example of a place where it is too dangerous to post a patrol car and highway code enforcement would thus benefit from the use of photo-radar.[3] Finally, on April 4, 2002, roadwork to make the intersection safer began with the demolition of one of the three overpasses, the one above Saint-Joseph Boulevard just west of the intersection.[4] It has been speculated that the remaining two overpasses would be eventually demolished as well, but to this day they are still in place. A major Canadian Pacific Railway line uses these two overpasses, making it impossible to demolish them in the short term.[5]
According to the Ministère des Transports du Québec[citation needed], the tunnel should have been completely demolished and reconstructed by July 2010. As of February 2024, the tunnel is still in place.
Notes
[edit]- ^ More accurately northwest, northeast, and southwest: in Montreal, directions are given relative to the flow of the Saint Lawrence River, which is considered west to east. All directions in this article are given according to that convention.
References
[edit]- ^ Demolition of the Tunnel de la mort, Canoe.ca [1] (in French)
- ^ Question de civisme!, Journal de St-Michel [2] (in French)
- ^ a b Commission permanente des transports, National Assembly of Quebec [3] (in French)
- ^ Démolition du tunnel de la mort à Montréal, Canoe.ca [4][usurped] (in French)
- ^ 30 millions $ pour modifier le «tunnel de la mort», Canoe.ca [5] (in French)
