Autoroute 25 (or A-25, also called Autoroute Louis-H.-La Fontaine in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

) is an Autoroute in the

Lanaudière Lanaudière (, ) is one of the seventeen administrative regions of Quebec, Canada, situated immediately to the northeast of Montreal. It has a total population ( 2016 Census) of 494,796 inhabitants, an increase of 4.9% over the 2011 census. Geogr ...

region of

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

. It is currently long and services the direct north of Montreal's Metropolitan Area. A-25 has one toll bridge, which is the first modern toll in the Montreal area and one of two overall in Quebec (after being joined by the A-30 toll bridge, which opened in 2012). A-25 begins at an interchange with A-20 and Route 132 in

Longueuil Longueuil () is a city in the province of Quebec, Canada. It is the seat of the Montérégie, Montérégie administrative region and the central city of the urban agglomeration of Longueuil. It sits on the South Shore (Montreal), south shore o ...

and quickly enters the Louis Hippolyte Lafontaine Bridge-Tunnel into the east end of Montreal. It is the main north-south

freeway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway, and expressway. Other similar terms ...

in the east end of Montreal (actually northwest-southeast but perpendicular to the

St. Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (, ) is a large international river in the middle latitudes of North America connecting the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic Ocean. Its waters flow in a northeasterly direction from Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawren ...

). Before the Montreal-Laval Extension, a gap existed in A-25 north of the interchange with Autoroute 40. Instead it followed Boulevard Henri-Bourassa to Boulevard Pie-IX, both of which are principal urban arterial roads. Boulevard Pie-IX north of Boulevard Henri-Bourassa was used as a temporary section of Autoroute 25 across the Rivière-des-Prairies to Autoroute 440. From there, A-25 proceeded east with A-440, then continued north and east of Laval. The designation of Autoroute Louis-Hippolyte-Lafontaine is named after Louis Hippolyte Lafontaine, a 19th-century

Lower Canada The Province of Lower Canada () was a British colonization of the Americas, British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence established in 1791 and abolished in 1841. It covered the southern portion o ...

leader of what was then the

Province of Canada The Province of Canada (or the United Province of Canada or the United Canadas) was a British colony in British North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, in the Report ...

. A-25 is also part of the

Trans-Canada Highway The Trans-Canada Highway (Canadian French, French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the A ...

between the A-20 and A-40 interchanges.

History

Construction history

Montreal-Laval extension

Autoroute 25 has been extended under a public-private partnership. The 7.2 km section of highway joins the southern part of Autoroute 25 at Boulevard Henri-Bourassa in Montreal's East end and the northern part at Laval's Autoroute 440. The $207-million project will save some $226 million for the province since a private consortium will assume any cost overruns. A

toll bridge A toll bridge is a bridge where a monetary charge (or '' toll'') is required to pass over. Generally the private or public owner, builder and maintainer of the bridge uses the toll to recoup their investment, in much the same way as a toll road ...

using a

RFID Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. An RFID system consists of a tiny radio transponder called a tag, a radio receiver, and a transmitter. When tri ...

transponder In telecommunications, a transponder is a device that, upon receiving a signal, emits a different signal in response. The term is a blend of ''transmitter'' and ''responder''. In air navigation or radio frequency identification, a flight trans ...

automatic payment system spans the

Rivière des Prairies The Rivière des Prairies (; ), called the Back River in English, is a delta channel of the Ottawa River in southwestern Quebec, Canada. The Kanien'kehá:ka called it ''Skowanoti'', meaning "River behind the island". The river separates the citi ...

and costs transponder-owning motorists $3.20 per crossing at peak hours (6-9 AM and 3-6 PM) and $2.24 per crossing the rest of the day. An additional $5.34 in administration fees is charged for motorists without transponders. The road opened on May 21, 2011. The highway has six lanes (three in each direction), while the bridge features three lanes in each direction with one reserved for public transit. Now that the link between Montreal and Laval is complete, the temporary autoroute section connecting Boulevard Pie-IX to Autoroute 440 lost its A-25 designation. The new route designation for this section is Route 125. The new span effectively joins the North Shore, Laval, Montreal, and the South Shore. Environmental organizations have raised concerns that the highway extension will lead to an influx of automobiles entering Montreal and increase development pressure on agricultural land in Eastern Laval.

Exit list

References

External links