Quebec Route 136 (Montreal)

Autoroute 720
Autoroute 720
Location	Montreal
Length	8.5 km (5.3 mi)
Existed	1972–2021

Route 136
Route 136
Autoroute Ville-Marie; Autoroute 720 (former)
	Map of Greater Montreal with Route 136 highlighted in red
Route information
	Maintained by Transports Québec
Length	8.5 km (5.3 mi)
Existed	1972–present
Restrictions	Height and HAZMAT restrictions in the Ville-Marie Tunnel
Major junctions
West end	A-15 / A-20 in Montréal
	A-10 in Montréal
East end	Rue Notre-Dame in Montréal
Location
Country	Canada
Province	Québec
Major cities	Montréal, Westmount
Highway system
	Quebec provincial highways; Autoroutes; List; Former;

Route 136 (R-136), formerly Autoroute 720, known as the Ville-Marie Expressway (English) or Autoroute Ville-Marie (French) is an Autoroute highway in the Canadian province of Quebec that is a spur route of Autoroute 20 in Montreal. Its western terminus is located at the Turcot Interchange, a junction with Autoroute 15 and Autoroute 20, and its eastern terminus is near the Jacques Cartier Bridge (Route 134), where the highway merges with Notre-Dame Street. The Autoroute Ville-Marie designation is named after the downtown borough of Ville-Marie, through which the expressway is routed. It was designated Autoroute 720 until 2021 when it was renamed to Route 136.

Part of R-136 runs underground (below grade) through Downtown Montreal. This section begins from the west at Rue Guy (exit 4: Rue de la Montagne / Rue Atwater) and remains underground almost all the way to its eastern end, except for a short section between Rue Saint-Urbain and Rue Hôtel-de-Ville. The tunnelled section west of this gap is known as the Ville-Marie Tunnel, and the section east of it is known as Viger Tunnel. However, locals regard both tunnels as one, and the term Ville-Marie Tunnel is often used to refer to both tunnels.

History

The Ville-Marie Expressway near Old Montreal

It was originally envisioned that Autoroute 20 would extend from the Turcot Interchange, along the route of the 720, to the Louis Hippolyte Lafontaine Bridge-Tunnel. Indeed, when the first section of the expressway was constructed and opened in the early 1970s, many Montrealers, anticipating that it would eventually replace the Metropolitan Expressway as the primary connector route to the Lafontaine Tunnel, and onward to Quebec City, dubbed the then-unnamed roadway the "Downtown Trans-Canada Highway". The Transports Québec (Le ministère des Transports du Québec, or MTQ) had planned to extend the Viger Tunnel east to Autoroute 25 at its Souligny Avenue interchange. The right-of-way has existed since the original layout of the A-720, and buildings along the extension were demolished at that time, even though the 720 was not completed due to cost constraints. The government of Montreal instead converted the portion of Rue Notre Dame east of the Jacques Cartier Bridge into a six-lane urban boulevard, rather than continue a sunken limited-access expressway. The final project was approved, and work began on Souligny Avenue to double the span of the travel lanes.

In 2007, working crews for Transports Québec discovered major cracks in a support pillar and closed several lanes of the expressway. Transports Quebec announced on August 10, 2007, major repair projects for a large section of the Expressway west of the Ville-Marie tunnel.^[3]

On July 31, 2011, part of the roof of the Ville-Marie Tunnel collapsed, sending large chunks of concrete to the road below. This incident occurred at a time with little traffic and no vehicles were damaged. Several construction workers were on site at the time and were unharmed.^[4] The tunnel had to be closed for repair of the roof and several other parts of the tunnel. Transport Minister Sam Hamad announced on Friday, August 5 that the tunnel would re-open the following day.

In 2021, the A-720 was renamed to Route 136 due to the highway having reduced lane sizes following the reconstruction of the Turcot Interchange.^[5]^[6]^[7]

Exit list

The entire route is in Montreal.

RCM	km^[2]	mi	Exit	Destinations	Notes
Montréal	0.00	0.00	–	A-20 west (Autoroute du Souvenir) – Aéroport P.-E.-Trudeau, Toronto	Exit 68 on A-20
			1S	A-15 south / A-20 east (Pont Champlain) – New York, Quebec	Turcot Interchange
			1N	A-15 north (Autoroute Décarie) – Laval, Aéroport Mirabel	Exit 63 on A-15
Westmount	1.6	2.6	2	Rue Saint-Jacques	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
Westmount	2.5	4.0	2	Avenue Atwater	Eastbound exit only
Montréal	3.3	5.3	3	Rue Guy – Downtown Montreal	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
	3.6	5.8	4	Avenue Atwater	Westbound exit only
	4.3	6.9	4	Rue de la Montagne / Rue Saint-Jacques	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
	4.4	2.7	West end of the Ville-Marie Tunnel
	5.6	9.0	5	A-10 east (Autoroute Bonaventure) – Pont Champlain, Sherbrooke, Rue University	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance; west end of A-10
	6.5	10.5	6	Boulevard Saint-Laurent / Rue Berri – Vieux-Montreal, Vieux-Port	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
	7.5	4.7	East end of the Ville-Marie Tunnel
	7.6	12.2	7	Pont Jacques-Cartier / Avenue Papineau / Avenue de Lorimier	Eastbound exit and westbound at-grade intersection
	8.50	13.68	–	Rue Notre-Dame east	Continuation beyond De Lorimier Avenue
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi Incomplete access