A cracked steel beam closes a lane of the Honoré-Mercier Bridge, and Quebec waives a toll to ease the jam
Maintenance work on the Honoré-Mercier Bridge turned up a crack in a steel beam on Tuesday, Le Devoir reported. One lane has been closed since then for an indefinite period, according to La Presse and TVA Nouvelles. On Wednesday TVA described kilometres of congestion, and Le Devoir said half of the lanes were still closed. The Transport Ministry announced late Wednesday that the toll on Highway 30 toward Montréal is waived from 5:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. starting Thursday, La Presse and TVA said, to soften the effect of the closed lane. La Presse reported that elected officials and unions see the shutdown as proof of the decay of a structure nearly a century old, and that some want the next government to prioritize a new South Shore crossing. The mayor of Châteauguay told TVA and the Journal de Montréal that residents are fed up. Early Thursday the Journal de Montréal, alone among the outlets we read, reported that ministry reports describe corrosion on the bridge.
A crossing that thousands of drivers rely on is running with fewer lanes and no announced end date, and the closure has reopened the question of whether a nearly century-old bridge should be repaired or complemented by a new link.
If you cross between Montréal and the South Shore at rush hour, expect long delays, check traffic updates before leaving and use the Highway 30 toll exemption between 5:30 and 9:30 a.m. if it suits your route.
Elected officials and unions say the sudden closure shows how run-down the structure has become, and that the next government should build a new crossing to the South Shore.
A more cautious reading is that one crack found during maintenance means the inspection system worked, and that the immediate question is the repair, not a new bridge. The reports we read did not say how serious the crack is.
The next useful facts are a repair estimate, a reopening date and what the ministry’s own inspection reports say about this beam. The government is in transition, so a decision on a new crossing will take months; the toll exemption is the only relief on offer today.
DailyDrop Canada edition No. 11 · Morning · THU., OCT. 15, 2026