The province has resumed work repairing the four-lane stretch of Highway 148 that passes through Luskville, with plans to repave the entire section by the end of September, according to a press release from the Ministère des Transports du Québec (MTQ).
The westbound section of the four-lane stretch has been closed for repairs since Apr. 22, reducing the eastbound section of the highway to one lane of traffic in either direction.
Marie-Josée Audet, spokesperson for MTQ’s Outaouais office, said the westbound section is expected to be completed by June 13, at which point the eastbound portion will be closed to be repaved, which she said is expected to be completed by July 11.
Included in the upgrades will be the addition of two left-turning lanes, repairs to culverts, and upgrades to the road lighting.
Also in the province’s plans for Highway 148 repairs in the Municipality of Pontiac is the stretch between chemin Westbrook and chemin Cochrane, but Audet said she did not yet know when this portion of the project was set to begin.
Total repairs planned for this year will cover 14 kilometres of the highway.
Work on the highway was abruptly interrupted last fall, not long after it had begun in August, when the province realized it had run out of funding for the repairs.
At the time, Audet said unforeseen developments in other projects in the region ate up more of the year’s total budget than they had been allited. This meant the MTQ had to cut some projects short to respect their budget allocation.
The eastbound lane was hastily repaved, with the promise that highway upgrades would continue in the spring.
Municipality of Pontiac mayor Roger Larose said he’s relieved the long-awaited highway repairs have resumed, which will be critical to ensuring a safer entrance and exit from the businesses at the western end of the four-lanes.
But he has heard some frustrations from the owner of the Dépanneur Général de Luskville about construction blocking entrance to his store.
“The way they put the cones there blocked access for big trucks to get into the store, and it was getting really dangerous,” Larose said, noting he managed to get a construction worker to move some of the pylons, but that he’d like to see the MTQ approve the reorganization of other construction materials to facilitate a safer entrance and exit of the dépanneur’s parking lot.
“I sent them an email on Friday, and hopefully someone is going to come and review that.”
