Montreal's Honoré-Mercier Bridge gets emergency repairs this weekend

Length of the crack in the steel beam

30 cm

Crews found a 30-centimetre crack on a steel beam under the bridge on Tuesday, closing a lane toward Montreal. Quebec's Transport Ministry says it is not dangerous for now, but a Polytechnique Montréal engineering professor calls it “very big.”

Honoré-Mercier Bridge

From Saturday at 3 a.m. to Monday at 5 a.m. ET, only one lane will be open in each direction while the beam is repaired. The ministry aims to restore two lanes each way by Monday.

To ease weekday traffic, the toll on westbound Highway 30 is suspended from 5:30 to 9:30 a.m. The measure does not apply this weekend.

“We're really at the end of our rope since the closing of a lane.”

— Christian Ouellette, mayor of Delson

South Shore mayors want a new bridge to replace the 92-year-old structure. The Jacques Cartier and Champlain Bridges Inc., which manages its federal section, says it plans no rebuild.