Québec Roads - A-30 - Châteauguay and E.

Autoroute 30, Châteauguay and east



Fun signs EB on the Châteauguay bypass. The first sign only looks like it says the future is in A-30, seemingly more propaganda to convince people they really want this freeway (and most really do, but plenty of vocal ones don't), but it really just means "the future is coming" - "en route" as opposed to "Route 30" is how it should be read. (Well, maybe. It's craftily done.) The second sign is the happy arrow with the disconnected hands who gives you nightmares and tells you to be careful, be responsible, and slow down. I have named him Frédéric Laflèche (Fred Arrow). He is the freakiest mascot anyone could wish for, and uniquely Québecois.


WB on the bypass at its pre-2012 end, Blvd. St-Jean Baptiste. In case you need help interpreting the poorly assembled sign, QC 138 is the crossroad, QC 132 WB continues straight, and QC 132 EB is to the right. The overpass will carry QC 138 over the future A-30 interchange, and QC 132 will become a frontage road pair for a short distance to the west. Photos continue on my QC 132 page, linked at bottom.


Unlike the other two small segments (what's now A-530 and the piece by A-55 you'll see below), the Châteauguay bypass has exit numbers, although they have changed (from 86 to 44 in this case) since the routing changed from following 132 to crossing the river into A-540. The freeway was originally planned to follow QC 132 through the developed area, as a freeway with frontage roads (continuing the pattern on the east side of St-Constant and Ste-Catherine), but those two towns killed that idea and Québec resourcefully found an alternate solution. Because the gap was so small and enough through traffic was bypassing Montréal that way, A-30 was actually signed to follow QC 132, unlike at the other gaps (which were also connected by 132). Both signs are EB, and the second one is at the then-end of A-30 at QC 132 on the west side of St-Constant, which is now the end of Autoroute 730.


With the new routing, this WB number should have changed by 2011.


After A-30 was completed around Saint-Constant, because of the original plan to plow straight through, there were two dangling ends left on either side of the city. The western end became A-730, and the eastern end became A-930. I understand that most traffic to Montréal would have stayed on QC 132 in either direction, but with a huge city right there, how can it be completely ignored on signs?


WB on the new bypass. Apparently I was wrong when I said it had exit numbers. Considering the routing to the west was finalized by the time the bypass opened, there's no excuse to not have an exit number (47) on this sign.


Looking east and west from a small street off of Montée de la Saline in Delson at the future Saint-Constant bypass being graded.


Again looking east and west, this time from the top of the grade. There is a long way to go here.


Finally, on Rue St-Ignace looking west across the end of Montée de la Saline at the entire section of future 30 I just walked.


In May 2011, St-Constant was taken care of, but work continued to connect A-30 without having to bridge the gap on A-15. Photos continue down the EB-NB ramp, temporarily carrying A-30 EB, and under future (now current) A-30. You will never see these signs again, because the road was completed shortly thereafter, leaving the piece from new A-30 to A-15 numbered as A-930.

Remaining photos were taken eastbound.


In Québec, trucks don't visit weigh stations, they instead drive onto portable showers. Or is that a giant electromagnet - the entire thing could be a portable truck gallows from the way it's laid out.


The eastern end of the main section of A-30 freeway in Sorel, with two paved carriageways continuing a short distance beyond the barricades before ending on the embankment shy of QC 133. One day they will continue as an overpass.


Looking east across QC 133 at the wide-open land waiting for a bridge, and then back west after crossing it at the stubs of the end of the freeway. When this next road is bridged, the current mainline will become the diamond exit ramps.


Looking west across Boulevard Poliquin. The surface alignment of A-30 is demarcated by the light poles. There would be another interchange here, which is why there's so much clear land in the NW quadrant in the foreground.


On the frontage roads at the A-55 interchange, just after entering the easternmost segment of A-30 from QC 132. The freeway hasn't been built through here yet, so A-30 follows the frontage roads for 1-2 km until it's clear of A-55. These signs surprised me by being somewhat old, given how new and piecemeal A-30 is in general. Also, QC 155 was decommissioned south of the St. Lawrence River in 2006 once A-55 was completed up to here, so the signs should have been covered. (They're still out there - THESE old signs - 15 years after I first saw them!)


The snow-covered stub west of QC 132, and looking east at the four-span QC 132 overpass with nothing in the middle. Satellite photos are inconclusive, but it appears the inner lanes are indeed paved, just not plowed for obvious reasons.


Well, visiting again in summer proved that conclusion. These photos look west on the completely paved EB mainline stub, with a stub frontage road to the left (see first photo) and the stub WB side (with both mainline and frontage road) most clearly visible in the third photo. As you can see, the province uses the EB lanes for paint testing, but the WB lanes are spared that fate.


Some of the amusing results of paint testing accumulating over the years. One straight arrow manages to disrupt what are otherwise two parallel columns of left-turn arrows. Then crosswalk mayhem begins - but where are the pedestrians?


Heading east from A-55, where the lanes from the frontage roads converge into the freeway, which then instantly drops down to two lanes and is only an expressway. Obviously, in the distant future, this could become a divided four-lane freeway, but Québec likes to take roads one step at a time.


The same location in summer, looking east from A-55 NB. The 100 inch-wide lanes continue practically into the merge with the active frontage road, which then swerves over to the WB side and the Super-2 freeway (i.e. the EB side would be added when it's twinned, if it ever is).

A-30 construction west of Châteauguay
Autoroute 530, former A-30
Onto QC 132 and A-30 construction
QC 205 and A-30 construction
QC 236 and A-30 construction


Onto QC 201
Onto QC 138
Exit 86 to QC 221
Onto A-15
To I-87
Onto QC 133
Onto A-55
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