Committee launched to tackle Montreal traffic woes

Quebec's transport minister Sam Hamad has announced a new committee that aims to create a plan to ease the burden of traffic problems caused by construction on the Mercier and Champlain bridges.

The committee includes municipal leaders, Transport Quebec and the union representing transport truck drivers.

Hamad said all the stakeholders need to work together and that it will be a priority to coordinate construction work to minimize traffic headaches.

Montreal mayor Grald Tremblay said some construction and roadwork projects need better planning and some could be delayed. He added the committee will come up with ways to better inform the public about traffic-disrupting construction and provide more information to commuters about how to get around it.

The announcement comes after an unprecedented joint editorial was published today in the La Presse and Gazette newspapers.

The papers' editorial boards called on elected officials at all levels to urgently come up with solutions to Montreal's highway and infrastructure problems.