SAINTE-JULIE, Que. – Truckers leaving Montreal’s Lafontaine Tunnel heading east on Autoroute 20 are painfully aware of the bottleneck caused by the disappearance of the third lane.

They will have to be patient for a while longer, but the two-lane bottleneck that starts just east of the tunnel will disappear by the fall of 2003.

The project to add a third, eastbound lane to the A-20 between Boulevard Industriel and the Chemine du fer a Cheval (Exit 102) in Sainte-Julie is being carried out in three-phases.

Phase One, a 4.9-kilometre stretch between Hwy. 30 and Exit 102 to the east of Hwy. 30, is under way and will be completed this November.

Phase Two, which is to begin next year, will extend the third lane an additional 4.5 kilometres westward from Hwy. 30, to a point 1.2 kilometres west of boulevard Montarville in Boucherville.

Phase Three will extend the new lane another 2.2 kilometres westward to boulevard Industriel.

The eastbound lanes are currently narrower than usual and speed restrictions are in place.

The total length of the construction is 11.6 kilometres and will cost $13 million. As many as 97,000 vehicles a day pass Boucherville on the A-20; at Sainte-Julie their numbers drop to between 66,000 and 71,000. n