Montreal Metro's Blue line extension stalled again, to cost $1B more than expected

Residents of Montreal's east end will have to wait until at least 2031 for the Metro's Blue line extension to come to fruition, the city's transit authority announced Friday.

The Socit de transport de Montral (STM) had set its sights on completing the Blue line by 2026 before postponing it to 2029 and putting it off again to 2030.

In a technical briefing for journalists Friday morning, the STM announced it would also need over $1 billion more than it previously estimatedto see the extension through.

The project is now expected to cost $7.6 billion, whereas the previous estimate was $6.4 billion.

Extending the Blue line would add five stations to the Metro network and require digging a six-kilometre tunnel under Jean-Talon Street to connect the Saint-Michel station to Highway 25 in the east.

A new garage is expected to be built at the end of the section as well as seven buildings.

Workers will have to excavate 2.4 million tonnes of rock before digging the tunnel at depths ranging from 17 to 40 metres.

Nearly 69,000 passengers are expected to use the new section each day, the STM estimates.

Impact on Jean-Talon Street

Traffic on Jean-Talon Street will be blocked over the next two years near the intersections of Pie-IX, Viau, Lacordaire and Langelier streets where the new entrances will be built.

"We have been waiting for this project for exactly six years," said Pierre Frisko, director of the commercial development corporation of Jean-Talon Street in Saint-Lonard. "During those years, nothing was done, so it is clear that we welcome this news with relief."

He noted that "major construction projects in Montreal generally involve a lot of problems," but he wantsthe project to become "a great experience" and use the opportunity to make the street more pedestrian-friendly.

A tunnel boring machine will be lowered underground at the Pie-IX Street station in 2026 and advance toward the east at a speed of 12 metres per day.

The Laval stations (Cartier, de la Concorde and Montmorency) were the last to be inauguratedin April 2007.

The Acadie, Outremont, Universit de Montral, douard-Montpetit and Cte-des-Neiges stations, which make up the western section of the Blue line, were the last to be built on the island of Montreal in 1988.