Montreal’s new bypass highway took so long to finish, the provincial government had to put up billboards exclaiming, “Highway 30: closer than you think.”

Dilly-dallying over the highway has cost the region dearly in lost productivity, excess pollution and wear and tear on the city’s decrepit and overtaxed bridges.

But after a startling 45 years of planning, the ribbon finally was cut on the last segment of the bypass in December. Although the project brought relief to many, some of its potential spinoffs are still up in the air.

The highway has cut commuting times for many motorists, who can now avoid Montreal. Transport firms cheered the quicker, cheaper route around congested Montreal for trucks that have no business being on the island, making it easier to transport goods between Ontario and New York, and between Ontario and both eastern Quebec and Atlantic Canada.

Montreal businesses anticipate a productivity boost, as workers won’t be stuck in traffic as much. And the region southwest of Montreal is rubbing its hands over the economic potential. Even environmentalists grudgingly approve of this highway, saying it will reduce greenhouse-gas emissions caused by needless travel.

The final 42 kilometres of the bypass, including a toll bridge southwest of Montreal, cost $1.5 billion (split between Quebec and Ottawa). It was built by a Spain-based consortium, which will run it for 30 years, with some toll revenue going to Quebec.

Governments have learned some lessons from Highway 30. In fact, the stalling and indecision now are over for some other long-delayed road projects. Work is about to begin in earnest on Montreal’s busiest and most dilapidated interchange, the Turcot. And plans are moving apace on a new federal span to replace the deteriorating Champlain Bridge by 2021.

Highway 30 also is showing that road tolls aren’t anathema to Quebecers the way they once were. Traffic on the bypass has been brisk, and there was no complaining about the tolls. (Cars pay $1.50; trucks, $1.15 per axle). That’s a relief to Ottawa, which plans to impose tolls on the new Champlain Bridge. Like the new bypass, the bridge project will be a public/private partnership, with a consortium in charge of building and maintaining the structure for a number of years.

Back on Highway 30, some people are seeing dollar signs. The Vaudreuil-Soulanges area crossed by Highway 30 could see a potential windfall. Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd. has built a 600-employee, $240-million distribution centre in the area. The hope is that other high-tech warehouses and distribution companies will move in, turning the region into a transport and logistics hub with billions invested in industrial parks, creating up to 15,000 jobs.

But all that development may follow the same, slow route as Highway 30. Worried about a backlash if agricultural land along the route is rezoned for development, the provincial government has no industrial-development plan in place yet.

Surely, Quebec could have figured out where industrial parks would go during all those years of delays. That way, service roads and access ramps could have been built when the highway opened.

The expected economic boom may be further away than Montrealers think.

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