Cote de Liesse Autoroute (A-520)

This 2006 photo shows the westbound Cote de Liesse Autoroute (A-520) at unsigned EXIT 6(Cavendish Boulevard) in the Saint-Laurent borough of Montreal. A 2004 proposal by Montreal city officials to convert A-520 from a freeway to an urban arterial may be shelved in wake of the 2006 de-merger of Dorval from the city of Montreal. (Photo by Laura Siggia Anderson.)

Length:
Constructed:

7.8 kilometers (4.8 miles)
1965-1966

MONTREAL'S AIRPORT GATEWAY: Cote de Liesse Road dates back at least to the opening of Montreal-Dorval (Pierre Trudeau) International Airport - which was built on the site of the former Dorval Race Track - in 1941. During World War II, shipments of troops and personnel traveled down Cote de Liesse Road as the airport served as Canada's major transit point for the Allied effort in Europe. After the war, the Cote de Liesse corridor provided an ideal combination for industries seeking inexpensive land and easy transportation access. Dozens of low-slung industrial buildings were erected along the road in the late 1940s and 1950s. Additional airport-related businesses such as hotels and restaurants eventually made their way in between the industrial buildings.

As the Cote de Liesse corridor grew more congested, Montreal city officials and the Minist�re de la Voirie du Qu�bec (MVQ) proposed an expressway down the corridor as part of the metropolitan area master plan of the early 1960s. The awarding of Expo '67 to Montreal added urgency to the completion of the freeway. As Cote de Liesse Road did not pass through any residential areas, its expansion into a freeway was met with little opposition.

Work on the Cote de Liesse Expressway began in August 1965 following the completion of an adjacent section of the Metropolitan Expressway (A-40) through the West Island. The four-lane freeway, which was built for a design speed of 70 km/h (45 MPH), was designed with flanking service roads for industrial and commercial areas. Concrete barriers separated all traffic flows between the local and express lanes, as well as between opposing flows. Tunnels were beneath the four carriageways of the freeway and service roads at 55th Avenue, 43rd Avenue, Montee de Liesse, MacArthur Street, and Cavendish Boulevard. Local streets connected these intersecting roads with the Cote de Liesse service roads.

Both ends of the Cote de Liesse Expressway end at traffic circles that connect to ramps leading to A-20 (Remembrance Highway) and A-40 (Metropolitan Expressway). The traffic circles at A-20 and A-40 pre-date construction of the Cote de Liesse Autoroute; they actually were built in the early 1950s when the current A-20 was Montreal-Toronto Boulevard and the current A-40 was Cremazie Boulevard.

The Cote de Liesse Expressway was completed in November 1966 at a cost of C$10 million; its service roads were finished three months earlier. Upon completion, the new freeway received the A-520 designation as part of a province-wide effort to introduce a new numbering system for autoroutes.

From 1973 and 1975, an additional interchange was built to connect A-520 to the new A-13 (Chomedey Expressway). As with the A-20 and A-40 interchanges, there is no direct freeway-to-freeway connection between A-520 and A-13. To minimize right-of-way acquisition, the Minist�re des Transports du Qu�bec (MTQ) - the successor to the MVQ - built elongated cloverleaf ramps that connected to the A-520 service roads. These ramps were designed in such a way that they mostly paralleled A-13.

This 2015 photo shows the eastbound A-520 (Cote de Liesse Expressway) approaching EXIT 4 (A-13 / Chomedey Expressway) in Dorval. (Photo by Dan Murphy.)

CHANGES FOR THE DORVAL INTERCHANGE: The interchanges with A-20 was considered built to adequate standards at the time, but the traffic circle that forms the southern terminus of the Cote de Liesse Autoroute soon proved the source of chronic bottlenecks. Moreover, the single-lane ramps from A-520 and A-20 serving Trudeau Airport often require motorists to negotiate dangerous traffic merges.

In the late 1990s, the MTQ and Aeroports de Montreal began to devise plans to replace the Dorval / Cote de Liesse interchange. The first phase of reconstruction, which began in late 2008, was comprised of the following parts:

  • A newly-constructed pair of high-speed ramps were built for flows from westbound A-20 to westbound Romeo Vachon Boulevard (airport access road), and from eastbound Romeo Vachon Boulevard to eastbound A-20. This new access roadways between A-20 and Romeo Vachon Boulevard bypas the Dorval Circle where A-520 ends at A-20.

  • The existing single-lane ramps connecting A-520 to Trudeau Airport were replaced with a "trumpet" interchange designed to minimize weaving movements.

Originally projected to cost C$150 million, the first phase of the Dorval Interchange reconstruction was completed in 2017 at a cost of C$344 million. Complicating matters was the need to build above four active commuter and freight tracks without interrupting rail traffic.

DORVAL INTERCHNAGE; PHASE TWO YET TO BE BUILT: For now, the existing Dorval Circle was kept in place for movements between A-20 and A-520, though future work may include the construction of direct ramps from eastbound A-20 to eastbound A-52 and from westbound A-520 to westbound A-20. Future work also may include the reconstruction of Dorval Avenue, which would be extended north to Michael Jasmin Avenue. In the meantime, temporary supports were built to stabilize the two A-20 overpasses over the existing Dorval Circle in 2021; these supports will remain in place until a more permanent fix is made under the second phase of the Dorval Interchange reconstruction.  No cost estimate was provided for the second phase of reconstruction.

CHANGES FOR THE A-40 INTERCHANGE: There are no current plans to replace the traffic circle at A-40 that forms the northern terminus of A-520. Such plans likely will await the reconstruction of A-40 west of the Decarie Expressway (A-15), which is expected to cost in the hundreds of millions of dollars and not likely to see progress until at least the 2030s.

BACK TO A BOULEVARD? Until 2002, zoning for the area along the expressway came under four separate jurisdictions. The merger of the city of Montreal with 27 other municipalities on Montreal Island that year created a larger unified city of Montreal, giving it broader regional planning powers.

In 2004, the then-unified city of Montreal devised plans to convert the existing Cote de Liesse Autoroute into a landscaped boulevard as part of the city-wide master plan. The "Cote de Liesse Boulevard" proposal was intended to not only beautify the airport gateway route, but also create easier access from one side of the highway to the other. However, the 2006 de-merger of Dorval at the southern end of A-520 from Greater Montreal (along with 14 other municipalities) complicated the city's plan. Because A-520 itself is under the jurisdiction of the MTQ and not the municipalities, the province has the final word on infrastructure improvements along the autoroute.

According to the MTQ, the Cote de Liesse Autoroute carries approximately 45,000 vehicles per day (AADT).

This 2021 photo shows a nearly deserted A-520 (Cote de Liesse Expressway) at EXIT 1 (Pierre Trudeau Airport / Romeo Vachon Boulevard) in Dorval. The federal government did not fully lift COVID-era travel restrictions until late 2022. (Photo by John Tee.)

This simulated illustration shows a depiction of the rebuilt A-20 / A-520 interchanges looking north toward Trudeau International Airport. The second phase of reconstruction of the Dorval Interchange would entail replacing the Dorval Circle with new direct links between A-20 and A-520, as well as an extended Dorval Avenue. (Photo from Ministere des Transports du Quebec.)

KEEP THE EXPRESSWAY: The existing expressway along the Cote-de-Liesse corridor should be maintained as conversion to a boulevard only would create more congestion. Although the construction of a direct rail link from Trudeau Airport would help ease highway overcrowding, direct freeway access from northern Montreal Island should be maintained via A-520 as the new direct airport ramps from A-20 will do from downtown.

To improve circulation along A-520, the northern terminus at A-40 should be rebuilt to permit high-speed freeway-to-freeway access for high-traffic movements (i.e., eastbound A-520 to eastbound A-40, and westbound A-40 to westbound A-520).

SOURCES: "Volume of Traffic for the Proposed Expressway System, Based on Projections for the Year 1981," Ville de Montreal, Service de la Circulation (1961); "Cote de Liesse? Now It's Autoroute 520" by Bob Hayes, The Montreal Gazette (11/08/1966); "Dorval Circle To Get Three New Overpasses," The Montreal Gazette (9/16/1999); "Ambitious Makeover Planned: Sweeping Urban Project To Include All Parts of Island" by Linda Guylai, The Montreal Gazette (3/10/2004); Ville de Montreal Master Plan, Ville de Montreal (2004); "Highway 20, Galipeault Bridge, Dorval Circle Get Major Facelifts" by Max Herrold, The Montreal Gazette (5/15/2008); "Our Friend, Cote de Liesse" by Julie Fournier, Spacing.ca  (8/12/2008); "New Road Plan for Montreal Airport To Take Off This Spring," CBMT-TV (2/16/2009); "Eight Years Later, Dorval Interchange Finally Opens to Traffic," CBMT-TV (11/30/2017); "Highway 20 Near Dorval Circle Reopens to Traffic After Emergency Closure" by Brayden Jagger Haines, CKMI-TV (4/28/2021); Aeroports de Montreal; Transport Quebec; F�lix-Mathieu B�gin; Christopher DeWolf.

  • A-520 shield by Wikipedia.
  • Lightpost photo by Douglas Kerr.
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COTE DE LIESSE EXPRESSWAY  LINKS:

COTE DE LIESSE EXPRESSWAY CURENT CONDITIONS:

COTE DE LIESSE EXPRESSWAY VIDEO LINK:

THE EXITS OF METRO MONTREAL:

  • Autoroute 520 exit list (coming soon)

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