And if we had built the 3rd link in the 70s?

"We'll have it! ". It is with this slogan filled with optimism that the Quebec-Levis Direct Link Committee launches its awareness campaign a few months before the October 1972 federal election.

Unlike mayors Labeaume and Lehouillier today, the mayors of the time, Gilles Lamontagne in Quebec City and Vincent Chagnon in Levis, share the same vision about the 3rd link.

Together, they dream of a tunnel bridge overlooking the Saint-Charles estuary to connect the north shore to the east of Levis.

The Vandry-Jobin report on travel in the region gives them ammunition. This vast study published in 1969 recommends the construction of a bridge between the two cities. The infrastructure would be completed between 1980 and 1990.

At the turn of the 70s, traffic between the two cities became problematic. People are working further and further away from their homes. The sectors of Parliament Hill and Laval University are in full development. The pressure on the ferry, the only direct link between Quebec City and Levis, has become enormous.

Public transit rather than a 3rd link

Mayor Lamontagne hopes for a great popular movement. He wants to "wake up the silent mass". Mayor Chagnon insists that the Montreal area has already been sufficiently favored by the construction of numerous bridges and a tunnel bridge.

Many radio stations and newspapers echo their demands, says David Gagne, a Levis historian.

These are years of population explosion, and we are beginning to see the effects of a deficient highway system.

Other priorities

But the 1972 campaign, fought against a backdrop of linguistic tensions and a recession, does not lend itself to the challenge of a new bridge in Quebec City. Pierre Elliott Trudeau's Liberals narrowly re-elected for a second term with no MPs making it his priority.

The ball goes back to the provincial camp, where the file does not go further. The Department of Transport has been doing studies for a decade without the government taking an official position.

The deputy minister of Transport, Robert Gregoire, however, speaks publicly about connecting Quebec City and Levis on three axes, the most easterly crossing the tip of the island of Orleans. A project reminiscent of the one presented by the Caquist government in 2019.

But this project that Gregoire presents as "the largest that the Quebec region will have known" will never be approved by the provincial government.

In 1975, the Minister of Transport, Raymond Mailloux, finally rejected any plans for a third link between the two shores. His priority is to accelerate work to complete Highway 40.

He also suggests the use of buses. Public transportation is in tune with the times.

If we could get motorists to use more public transit and leave their cars at home, we would have solved a lot of the problem.

The battle of the 60s … against the Pierre-Laporte bridge!

The defeat of supporters of a link east of the Quebec Bridge in the 1970s left them with a bitter taste. Especially since another battle, this time against the location of the future Pierre-Laporte bridge, had already been hotly contested.

In the 1960s, many tunnel projects were proposed and supported by both chambers of commerce and municipal elected officials.

In 1963, the report of the Quebec Metropolitan Office of Industry and Commerce stated that a city center downtown tunnel could "drain" 60% of the Quebec Bridge's movements.

But to the chagrin of supporters of a direct Quebec-Levis link, Jean Lesage's government decided instead to build a second bridge … just next to the Quebec Bridge. The Pierre Laporte Bridge was inaugurated in November 1970.

Transport Minister Bernard Pinard pleads that this second bridge is the most economical and fastest project to serve the highway complex being built, to connect to the Trans-Canada Highway, and to respond to the region's urgent traffic problems. .

Conscious of making a controversial decision, he tries to put a balm on the wounds of the supporters of the direct link, whose struggle lasts "for 40 years," he recalls.

The provincial government has never been against a direct Levis-Quebec link. On the contrary. Studies are under way so that a quick solution is given for the realization of a project cherished by the population of both banks for a long time.

Already projects … in 1945

Linking downtown Quebec City and Levis was also considered in the 1940s.

In December 1945, the Mayor of Levis, Adelard Begin, presented an elaborate project of downtown bridge to downtown.

Rated at $ 18 million, his project is 100% supported by the Mayor of Quebec, Lucien Borne. He even thinks he can find in Quebec the capital needed to build it.

Mayor Begin says he has the necessary support from hundreds of municipalities, dozens of MPs and even US governors, all sensitive to the economic potential of the project.

In March 1947, four deputies of the region are convinced to have the listening of the government Duplessis to sell the idea to the National Assembly.

Daily traffic jams on both banks are mentioned. Some truckers have to wait two hours in Levis before being able to take the ferry to Quebec City.

The question is of national importance to them.

From an economic point of view, this is one of the best investments the government could make.

The Duplessis government first evokes a bridge built "rather Sillery, to avoid spoiling the landscape of Quebec."

But a month later, the project of a new bridge is discarded. Instead, it is recommended that the capacity of the ferry and the Quebec Bridge be increased by connecting it to boulevard Laurier in Quebec City and the Trans-Canada Highway in Levis.
More economical solutions.

A bridge in Quebec … too far west?

Could the controversy around crossing points between Quebec City and Levis go back further?

In the 1970s, supporters of a third link did not hesitate to situate the origin of the problem as far as … 1851.

While Quebec caresses the dream of a direct link between its downtown and that of Levis to get the railroad, a first report rather proposes to build a bridge between Sainte-Foy and Chaudiere.

A choice confirmed by other subsequent studies. The Quebec Bridge was built in 1903, when the river is the narrowest. It's the most economical choice that wins.

"It was also easier. It was already easier to build a bridge in the open field than between two cities that had developed during the canoes, in the 19th century, "says historian David Gagne.

Finally, as a direct link Quebec-Levis, we never replaced the famous ice bridge.

In recent years, other issues have been added to the economic and logistical challenges: urban sprawl and sustainable development. This makes the design of a third link even more complex.

"What is certain is that to move forward on this type of issue, we should have had for a long time an urban community that covers both shores, with a common management plan," Serge Filion analyzes.

"The key is to have a plan that still stands the test in 30 years. And you have to get as many people as you can, "he says.