Quebec Autoroute 10

Autoroute 10
Autoroute Bonaventure Autoroute des Cantons-de-l'Est
Route information
Maintained by Transports Québec
Length:	145.1 km[1][2] (90.2 mi)
Existed:	1962[1] – present
Major junctions
West end:	A-720 in Montréal
	A-15 / A-20 from Montréal to Brossard A-30 in Brossard A-35 in Chambly A-55 in Magog A-410 in Sherbrooke
East end:	A-55 / A-610 in Sherbrooke
Location
Major cities:	Montreal, Brossard, Chambly, Magog, Sherbrooke
Highway system
Quebec provincial highways ← A-5 A-13 →

Autoroute 10 (A-10) is an Autoroute of Quebec in Canada that links greater Montreal to key population centres in Montérégie and Estrie, including Brossard, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Granby, and Sherbrooke.

The A-10 also provides access to popular winter resorts at Bromont, Owl's Head, Mont Sutton and Mont Orford. Motorists travelling on the A-10 can see eight of nine Monteregian Hills: Mount Royal, Mont Saint-Bruno, Mont Saint-Hilaire, Mont Saint-Grégoire, Mont Rougemont, Mont Yamaska, Mont Shefford and Mont Brome. (The ninth, Mont Mégantic is located beyond the eastern terminus of the autoroute.

At 147 km (91 mi) long, the A-10 is the fourth longest autoroute in Quebec.

Description

The A-10 carries the name Autoroute Bonaventure (Bonaventure Expressway) from its start in Montreal's city centre to the Champlain Bridge. From there until its terminus in Sherbrooke, the A-10 is called the Autoroute des Cantons-de-l'Est (Eastern Townships Expressway), a reference to the historic name given to the region east of Montreal and north of the U.S. border.

The road's main material is asphalt concrete, many parts of the highway are bordered with gravel.

Autoroute Bonaventure

The A-10 begins in Downtown Montreal as an extension of University Street near Place Bonaventure. Two underground ramps provide an interchange with the A-720. At km 1, the A-10 crosses the Lachine Canal, then travels along the St. Lawrence River to an interchange with the A-15 and A-20. This interchange is partially on the Island of Montreal and partially on Nuns' Island. At km 2, it crosses (but does not provide access to) Route 112 at the north end of Victoria Bridge. The A-10 has three lanes in each direction on the majority of its length and the speed limit is 70 km/h. The A-10 is multiplexed with the A-15 and A-20 across the Champlain Bridge. All three autoroutes diverge soon after reaching the southern edge of the bridge.

The A-10 serves as an important link for commuters travelling to downtown Montreal from suburban South Shore communities via the Champlain Bridge. It also provides access to the Montreal Technoparc and the Concordia Bridge. The A-10 in Montreal is jointly owned by the city of Montreal, the Société Les Ponts Jacques Cartier, and Federal Bridge Corporation (an agency of the Government of Canada).

Autoroute des Cantons de l'Est

At km 8, the A-10 crosses Taschereau Boulevard. Bus lanes run in both directions along the median for four kilometers between the southern end of the Champlain Bridge and Milan Boulevard. Crossing Brossard, the A-10 runs along the northern edge of the Quartier DIX30 shopping complex before reaching interchanges with the A-30 at km 11 and the A-35 at km 22. The A-10 crosses the Richelieu River at km 28 and enters a rich agricultural region.

Between Bromont (km 74) and Magog (km 121) the A-10 passes through a mountainous region, close to two of Quebec's major ski centres (Mont Orford and Mont Brome). Near the northern end of Lake Memphremagog, the A-10 reaches an interchange with the A-55 at km 121. The A-10 continues east as a concurrency with A-55. Between km 123 and 128, Route 112 functions as a frontage road.

A-10 and A-55 bypass the city of Sherbrooke to the east and north, reaching interchanges with spur routes A-410 at km 140 and A-610 at km 143. The A-10 reaches its terminus at the junction with A-610, while A-55 continues north to Drummondville.

The portion east of Autoroute 55 (linking that autoroute with Route 112) was renumbered as Autoroute 610 on September 29, 2006.

History

The 116 km (72 mi) long Autoroute de l'Est (Eastern Expressway) was opened to traffic in December 1964. Extending from the southern end of the Champlain Bridge to Magog, the highway replaced the old Quebec Route 1 (now Route 112) as the main road link between these two points. An official opening for the highway came one year later, in 1965. The A-10 was the second autoroute (after the Laurentian Autoroute outside Montreal to be commissioned. Both were opened as toll highways by a Quebec government agency. The A-10 featured five toll stations (at current km 22, km 37, km 68, km 90, and km 115). Motorists were charged $1.50 to make the entire trip.

The Autoroute Bonaventure through Montreal opened in 1967 to link approach roads to Expo 67 with the Champlain Bridge.

The Autoroute des Cantons de l'Est was the first autoroute in Quebec to use exit numbers based on distance instead of in sequential order, as had previously been the case. As Canada had not yet adopted the Metric system, exit numbers referenced the distance in miles from the southern end of the Champlain Bridge.

The A-10 did not originally have a route number. Instead, route marker signs featured a red triangular shield featuring the name of the route. Unusually, the directional signs were also originally red. Later, blue shields and signs replaced the red versions.

In 1985, the toll system was abolished and use of the triangular shields were discontinued. Blue directional signs have gradually been converted to standard green signs used elsewhere in North America. In 2013, motorists could still see blue signs at entrances to, and exits of, the autoroute.

Between 1988 and 2006, A-10 departed its multiplex with A-55 at km 143 and continued eastward for eleven kilometers to a final terminus with Route 112. In October 2006, this section of A-10 was renumbered as A-610.

Future

Under a project started in 2016, the Autoroute Bonaventure will be completely reconfigured by 2018.^[3] The Société du Havre de Montréal (SHM) is transforming the autoroute into an urban thoroughfare as part of a broader project to redevelop Montreal's harbourfront.^[4] The city of Montreal announced in January 2013 that it would take over the SHM's responsibilities, citing concerns over transparency.^[5]

A current proposal to build the East-West Highway across central and northern Maine calls for the A-10 to be extended to the U.S. border at Coburn Gore where it would meet the new highway. Doing so would create a new and more direct limited-access highway link between Maine, the Maritime Provinces, and Quebec.

Exit list

Region	Location	km	mi	Old exit	New exit	Destinations	Notes
Montréal	Montréal	0.00	0.00		–	A-720 east (Autoroute Ville-Marie) / Boulevard Robert-Bourassa west	Exit 5 on A-720
					1	Rue Wellington / Rue Notre-Dame	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
					2	Avenue Pierre-Dupuy / Rue Carrie-Derick – Port de Montréal
					3	Rue Carrie-Derick	Westbound exit is via exit 2
					4 58	A-15 north / A-20 west (Autoroute Décarie) – Saint-Jérôme, Toronto, Aéroport P.-E.-Trudeau, Aéroport Mirabel	Western terminus of concurrency with A-15 / A-20
					5 57	Île des Sœurs
St. Lawrence River				Pont Champlain
Montérégie	Brossard				6 53	A-15 south / A-20 east / Route 132 to I-87 – Longueuil, Varennes, New York	Eastern terminus of concurrency with A-15 / A-20; exit 75 on A-20
				1	8	Route 134 (Boulevard Taschereau) – Longueuil, La Prairie	Taschereau Interchange
					9	Boulevard Milan	No westbound exit
					11	A-30 (Autoroute de l'Acier) to A-20 east – Sorel-Tracy, Vaudreuil-Dorion, Québec, Aéroport Saint-Hubert	Eastbound exit also serves Boulevard de Quartier; exit 67 on A-30
	Carignan–Chambly			9	22	A-35 south to I-89 – Chambly, Saint-Luc, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Vermont	Exit 55 on A-35
	Richelieu River			Pont Michel-Chartrand
	Richelieu			13	29	Route 133 (Chemin des Patriotes) – Richelieu
	Marieville			18	37	Route 227 – Marieville, Mont-Saint-Grégoire, Sainte-Angèle-de-Monnoir
	Sainte-Brigide-d'Iberville			25	48	Route 233 – Saint-Césaire, Rougemont, Sainte-Brigide-d'Iberville
	Ange-Gardien			30	55	Route 235 – Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford, Ange-Gardien, Farnham
	Saint-Alphonse-de-Granby			37	68	Route 139 (Boulevard David-Bouchard) – Saint-Alphonse-de-Granby, Sutton, Cowansville
	Granby–Bromont			41	74	Route Pierre-Laporte – Centre-Ville Granby
	Bromont			44	78	Boulevard de Bromont – Shefford
	Shefford–Waterloo				88	Boulevard de l'Horizon
				52	90	Route 243 – Waterloo, Valcourt, Sutton, Lac-Brome
Estrie	Saint-Étienne-de-Bolton			58	100	Stukely-Sud, Saint-Étienne-de-Bolton	Via Route 112
	Eastman			61	106	Route 245 – Eastman, Mansonville, Bolton-Est
	Magog			67	115	Route 112 (Rue Principale) – Centre-Ville Magog, Saint-Benoît-du-Lac
					118	Route 141 (Rue Merry) – Orford
				71	121	A-55 south (Autoroute Bombardier) to I-91 – Coaticook, Stanstead, Vermont	Western terminus of concurrency with A-55; exit 34 on A-55
	Magog–Sherbrooke			72 36	123	Route 112 to Route 249 – Centre-Ville Magog, Saint-Denis-de-Brompton
	Sherbrooke			41	128	Route 112 (Boulevard Bourque)
				46	133	Chemin Saint-Roch Nord
				50	137	Route 220 (Boulevard Industriel) / Chemin de Saint-Élie
				54	140	A-410 east (Autoroute Jacques-O'Bready) to Route 108 / Rue King	Western terminus of A-410
				55	141	Boulevard de Monseigneur-Fortier
					143	A-610 east (Autoroute Louis-Bilodeau) to Route 112 – Centre-Ville Sherbrooke, East Angus, Lac-Mégantic	Western terminus of A-610
					–	A-55 north (Autoroute Bombardier) – Drummondville, Québec	Eastern terminus of concurrency with A-55
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi       Concurrency terminus       Incomplete access

References

External links

Route map: Google

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Quebec Autoroute 10.

• A-10 at Exitlists.com
• A-10 at Quebec Autoroutes
• Steve Anderson's MontrealRoads.com: Bonaventure Autoroute (A-10)
• Steve Anderson's MontrealRoads.com: Eastern Townships Autoroute (A-10)
• Transports Quebec Map (in French)