Autoroute de l'Acier | ||||
Route information | ||||
Maintained by Transports Québec | ||||
Existed | 1968[1]–present | |||
Main section | ||||
Length | 144.1 km[1][2] (89.5 mi) | |||
West end | A-40 (TCH) in Vaudreuil-Dorion | |||
Major intersections | A-20 in Vaudreuil-Dorion A-530 in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield R-132 / R-138 in Châteauguay A-730 in Saint-Constant A-15 / A-930 in Candiac A-10 in Brossard R-116 / R-112 in Longueuil A-20 (TCH) in Boucherville | |||
East end | Boulevard Poliquin in Sorel-Tracy | |||
Bécancour section | ||||
Length | 20.5 km[1][2] (12.7 mi) | |||
West end | R-132 in Bécancour | |||
Major intersections | A-55 in Bécancour | |||
East end | R-132 in Bécancour | |||
Location | ||||
Country | Canada | |||
Province | Quebec | |||
Major cities | Longueuil, Brossard, Châteauguay, Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Boucherville | |||
Highway system | ||||
|
Autoroute 30 (A-30), or the Autoroute de l'Acier (In English, Steel Freeway) is an Autoroute in Quebec, Canada. Construction of the A-30 dates back to the early days of autoroute construction in the 1960s. Originally called Highway 3,[3] the A-30 was designed to replace Route 132 as the main artery linking the communities along the South Shore of the St. Lawrence River. The A-30 was originally intended to begin at the U.S. border near Dundee and end at Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets (in Centre-du-Québec).[4] In the late 1970s an eight-year moratorium on new autoroute construction in favour of public transport by the Parti Québécois prevented implementation of that plan.
The original section of Autoroute 30 in 1968 linked Sorel-Tracy to Route 116, which was then called Highway 9. The A-30 was extended to an interchange with Autoroute 10 in Brossard by 1985 and to Autoroute 15 in Candiac by 1996.
Growing road congestion in and around Montreal led to the announcement in 2006 of a federal-provincial partnership to complete A-30 as southwestern bypass ring road.[5] At that time, the section from Châteauguay to Vaudreuil-Dorion was to be tolled, however by 2009 it was decided to collect tolls only on the St. Lawrence bridge. A-30 was extended north of the St. Lawrence River (over a new crossing) to a realigned interchange with Autoroute 20 and Autoroute 540 in Vaudreuil-Dorion, afterward A-540 was annexed and renamed as an extension of A-30. As construction progressed, short sections of the original A-30 that are bypassed by the new route were converted to spur routes and assigned new route numbers; for instance the old alignment of A-30 south of Salaberry-de-Valleyfield was renamed Autoroute 530. Opened to traffic on December 15, 2012, the realigned Autoroute 30 permits motorists travelling the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor (eg Toronto to Quebec City) to bypass Montreal.[6][7][8]