Autoroute 15 | ||||
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Autoroute Décarie, Autoroute des Laurentides | ||||
Route information | ||||
Maintained by Transports Québec | ||||
Length: | 164 km[3][1] (101.9 mi) | |||
Existed: | 1958 [1][2] – present | |||
Major junctions | ||||
South end: | I-87 towards Champlain, New York | |||
A-30 in Candiac A-10 / A-20 / A-720 / A-40 in Montreal A-440 in Laval A-640 in Boisbriand A-50 in Mirabel |
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North end: | Route 117 / Route 329 / TCH in Sainte-Agathe | |||
Location | ||||
Major cities: | Candiac, La Prairie, Brossard, Montreal, Laval, Boisbriand, Blainville, Saint-Jérôme, Saint-Sauveur, Sainte-Adèle, Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts | |||
Highway system | ||||
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Autoroute 15 (also called the Décarie Expressway (English) or Autoroute Décarie (French) between the Turcot and Décarie Interchanges in Montreal and the Laurentian Autoroute (English) Autoroute des Laurentides (French) north of Autoroute 40) is a highway in western Quebec, Canada. It was, until May 2011, the only constructed north-south autoroute to go out of Montreal on both sides. A-15 begins at the end of Interstate 87 at the United States border at Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle to Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts with an eventual continuation beyond Mont-Tremblant. The total length of A-15 is currently 164 km (101.9 mi), including a short concurrency (4 km/2.5 mi) with Autoroute 40 (Boulevard/Autoroute Métropolitan) that connects the two main sections. This is one of the few autoroutes in Quebec that does not have any spinoff highways.
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The southern section of A-15 connects the south shore suburbs of Montreal and is also the primary trade corridor route between Montreal & New York City linking Quebec Autoroute 15 to Interstate 87 at the Canada-United States border. This was the former Route 9, and connected with US 9 on the western shore of Lake Champlain. In Brossard, it joins up with A-10 and A-20 across the Champlain Bridge into Montreal. The A-10 splits off almost immediately after crossing the bridge to head into downtown Montreal at the Bonaventure Expressway and the A-20 splits off shortly after at the Turcot Interchange (échangeur Turcot), leaving the A-15 to continue northward as Autoroute Décarie until the Décarie Interchange (échangeur Décarie) with the A-40 at the point where it turns from the Trans-Canada into the Metropolitan Expressway.
The route is also connected to Autoroute 30 in Candiac which will be completed to Autoroute 20 in 2009 providing a quicker access to the south shore of Montreal, to southern communities located alongside Autoroute 15 and to the US-Canadian border in Lacolle. It will also give a quicker access from there to areas west of Montreal and also Ottawa and Gatineau.
The Autoroute Décarie is a sunken highway between the northbound and southbound lanes of Décarie Boulevard (hence the name); from boulevard Métropolitain at its northern end to Monkland Avenue and the Villa Maria Metro station at its southern end. It was built on a wide expanse of vacant land, donated to the City by the Décarie estate on the condition that only a streetcar line be established. The decommissioning of the streetcar system in 1959 left the right-of-way as an obvious choice for a highway, and so the Décarie Autoroute was dug there. South of Queen Mary Road, however, were a significant number of houses which were demolished. In order to avoid demolishing the Notre-Dame-de-Grâces church, the highway makes a slight westerly jog below Côte-Saint-Luc Road and runs through a short tunnel, before emerging between Addington and Botrel Streets and running down to Sherbrooke Street and Saint Jacques Street, where it spectacularly goes from below-ground to well above ground as it intersects with Autoroutes 20 and 720 in the infamous Turcot Interchange (dubbed "Spaghetti Junction" by train crews operating the former CN Rail Turcot Yard). Following the conversion from streetcar line to highway, the Décarie Estate unsuccessfully sued the city but was unable to prevail because they did not document their case well enough for the nevertheless sympathetic court.
This part of the highway was the site of a spectacular event on the 14th of July 1987. During the Montreal Flood of 1987, over 100 mm fell over the central part of the Montreal island and a large part of it ended up in the sunken highway, transforming it into a river. One person died from drowning.
Decarie Boulevard itself continues from Monkland Avenue south to Saint Jacques Street and from Autoroute 40 north into Ville Saint-Laurent past Du College Station and Côte-Vertu Station/Norgate shopping centre. It is considered by some to be Montreal's historically worst urban planning fiascos.[4]
After its concurrency with A-40, the northern section of A-15 is the main freeway route to the Laurentians until it downgrades to Route 117. It also links up to the northern suburbs of Montreal, as well as provides a connection to the A-440, A-640 and the A-50 in Mirabel. The first section from A-40 to Saint-Jérome was opened in 1958 as a toll road, although the tolls were later removed. This section was also the first to be designed as an autoroute in the province. It was named Autoroute Montréal-Laurentides during the 1960s.[5]
Over the next years, it was extended north to Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts as a new connection to touristic and skiing destinations in the Laurentides including in Saint-Sauveur, Sainte-Adèle, Mont-Gabriel and Estérel. In the future, it is possible that the A-15 may continue even farther north, past Mont-Tremblant, as Route 117 is already an at-grade expressway with a freeway bypass of Saint-Jovite completed, and the name Autoroute des Laurentides is also recognized on the freeway bypass (and exit numbers continue). This section is numbered separately from the southern section as if it were a different route. The northern route is also part of the Trans-Canada Highway.
Location | No. | Destinations | Notes |
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Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle | I-87 south – New York | ||
1 | Montée Glass, Montée Guay | ||
6 | Route 202 – Hemmingford, Lacolle | ||
11 | Montée Henrysburg | ||
13 | Montée Murray | Southbound exit only | |
Saint-Patrice-de-Sherrington, Saint-Jacques-le-Mineur | 21 | Route 217 / Route 219 / Route 221 – Napierville, Sherrington | |
Saint-Édouard | 29 | Saint-Édouard, Saint-Jacques | |
Saint-Mathieu | 38 | Saint-Mathieu, Saint-Philippe | |
Candiac | 40 | A-30 west – Châteauguay, Honoré-Mercier bridge | New exit opened in November 2010 |
42 | A-30 east / Route 132 west – Châteauguay, Sorel, Québec, Salaberry-de-Valleyfield | South end of Route 132 overlap | |
44 | Boulevard Montcalm, Candiac | ||
45 | Route 134 east (Boulevard Taschereau) – La Prairie | Northbound exit and southbound entrance | |
La Prairie | 46 | Boulevard Salaberry, La Prairie | |
47 | Rue Saint-Henri, La Prairie | Northbound exit and entrance | |
Parc de la Marina | Southbound exit and entrance | ||
Brossard | 50 | Boulevard Matte | |
51 | Boulevard Rivard | Southbound exit is via exit 50 | |
51 | Rue Riviera | Southbound exit and entrance | |
52 | Boulevard Rome | ||
A-20 east / Route 132 east – Longueuil | North end of Route 132 overlap; south end of A-20 overlap | ||
Boulevard Marie-Victorin | Exits only | ||
A-10 east to A-30 / I-89 – Sherbrooke, Québec, Vermont | South end of A-10 overlap | ||
Champlain Bridge over the St. Lawrence River | |||
Montreal | |||
57 | Île de Sœurs | ||
58 | A-10 west – Montreal | North end of A-10 overlap; northbound exit and southbound entrance | |
60 | Wellington Street, A-10 west – Montreal, Verdun | ||
61 | Rue Atwater, Saint Patrick Street | ||
62 | Boulevard de La Vérendrye, Avenue de l'Église | ||
63 | A-20 west / A-720 east (Autoroute Ville-Marie) – Montreal, Aéroport P.E. Trudeau, Pont Mercier, Toronto | North end of A-20 overlap; signed as exits 63-E (east) and 63-O (west) southbound | |
64 | Route 138 (Rue Sherbrooke) / Rue Saint-Jacques | ||
66 | Chemin Côte-Saint-Luc, Chemin Queen-Mary | ||
69 | Rue Jean-Talon, Rue de la Savane, Avenue Van Horne | ||
70-O | A-40 west / TCH west to A-520 – Aéroport P.E. Trudeau, Gatineau, Ottawa | South end of A-40/TCH overlap | |
67 | Route 117 north (Boulevard Marcel-Laurin) / Boulevard Décarie | southbound exit and northbound entrance only | |
68 | Rue Stinson, Chemin Rockland, Boulevard de L'Acadie | northbound exit and southbound entrance only | |
1-E | A-40 east / TCH east / Boulevard de L'Acadie – Québec | North end of A-40/TCH overlap; southbound exit and northbound entrance only | |
2 | Chemin de la Côte-Vertu, Saint-Laurent | Southbound exit and northbound entrance | |
2 | Boulevard de L'Acadie | Northbound exit and entrance | |
3 | Boulevard Henri-Bourassa | No northbound exit, southbound entrance and exit via Jules-Poitras Boulevard | |
4 | Rue de Salaberry | Signed as exits 4-E (east) and 4-O (west) southbound, no southbound entrance | |
Médéric Martin Bridge over the Rivière des Prairies | |||
Laval | |||
7 | Boulevard de la Concorde, Boulevard Cartier, Boulevard Notre-Dame | ||
8 | Route 148 (Boulevard Saint-Martin) | Southbound exit is via exit 10 | |
10 | A-440 (Autoroute Laval) / Boulevard le Carrefour | ||
14 | Route 117 (Boulevard Curé Labelle) / Boulevard Dagenais | Signed as exits 14-N (north) and 14-S (south) southbound | |
16 | Boulevard Sainte-Rose, Av. de la Renaissance | ||
Gédéon-Ouimet Bridge over the Rivière des Mille Îles | |||
Boisbriand | |||
19 | Route 344 – Boisbriand, Rosemère | ||
Boisbriand, Sainte-Thérèse | 20 | A-640 to A-13 / Boulevard Desjardins – Repentigny, Québec, Aéroport P.E. Trudeau, Saint-Eustache | Signed as exits 20-E (east) and 20-O (west) |
23 | Rue Saint-Charles, Mirabel, Saint-Augustin | ||
Mirabel, Blainville | 25 | Blainville | |
28 | Blainville, Mirabel | New exit opened in August 2009 | |
Mirabel | 31 | Mirabel, Saint-Janvier, Sainte-Monique | |
35 | A-50 – Aéroport Mirabel, Lachute, Gatineau | ||
39 | Route 158 – Mirabel, Saint-Antoine, Sainte-Sophie, Saint-Canut | ||
Saint-Jérôme | 41 | Boulevard du Grand-Héron | |
43 | Saint-Jérôme, Bellefeuille, Saint-Colomban | Signed as exits 43-E (east) and 43-O (west) | |
45 | Route 117 / Montée Sainte-Thérèse – Prévost, Lafontaine, Saint-Hippolyte | ||
51 | Aire de Service La Porte du Nord (rest area) | ||
Prévost | 55 | Prévost | Northbound exit and southbound entrance |
Sainte-Anne-des-Lacs | 57 | Sainte-Anne-des-Lacs | Northbound exit and southbound entrance |
58 | Chemin Avila, Piedmont | ||
Saint-Sauveur | 60 | Route 364 – Saint-Sauveur, Morin-Heights, Piedmont, Saint-Adolphe | |
Sainte-Adèle | 64 | Chemin du Mont-Gabriel | |
67 | Route 117 – Sainte-Adèle | Northbound exit and southbound entrance | |
69 | Route 370 (Chemin Pierre-Péladeau) – Sainte-Adèle, Sainte-Marguerite-du-Lac-Masson, Estérel | ||
72 | Montée à Séraphin, Chemin du Mont-Sauvage, Sainte-Adèle | Northbound exit and southbound entrance | |
Val-Morin | 76 | Route 117 – Val-Morin, Val-David | Northbound exit and southbound entrance |
Val-David | 80 | 7e Rang, Val-David | Northbound exit and southbound entrance |
Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts | 83 | To Route 329 south / Montée Alouette – Saint-Adolphe-d'Howard | Northbound exit and southbound entrance |
86 | Route 117 – Val-David, Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts | ||
88 | Rue Demontigny | Northbound exit and southbound entrance | |
89 | Route 117 south (Boulevard Morin) / Route 329 – Saint-Donat, St-Adolphe-d'Howard |
On June 18, 2000, the southern portion of the Boulevard du Souvenir overpass in Laval, which crosses Quebec Autoroute 15, collapsed into the roadway, killing one and injuring two when cars were crushed underneath the structure. Sixteen beams weighing about 70 tons each fell. The contractor was faulted for shoddy work.
The expressway has also seen flooding. On July 14, 1987, a sudden torrential downpour caused by an HP supercell thunderstorm dumped over 100 millimetres (4 inches) of rain in just over one hour across the city. The Décarie Expressway, which is below-grade, was heavily flooded and became a river. At some locations, the water reached a maximum of 3.6 metres in depth on the roadway. Over 300 vehicles were abandoned when they were submerged. Two people were killed by the storm.[6] One 80-year-old man on the Expressway drowned and another one was killed by electrical wires. On July 5, 2005, another torrential downpour flooded portions of the Expressway after several manhole covers blew over.[7]
Preceded by Route 117 |
Trans-Canada Highway Autoroute 15 |
Succeeded by Autoroute 40 |
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