Modernization Work Underway at Portage Rest Area Along Highway 20 Eastbound

The Ministère des Transports is currently carrying out modernization work at the Portage rest area, located along Highway 20 eastbound. The project will be carried out in phases and is expected to span a few years.

Eventually, the MTQ not only wants to add a parking lot for heavy vehicles and a parking lot for buses and recreational vehicles, but also the renovation of the building, as well as the upgrading of drinking water and water systems. waste.

After starting deforestation work in 2022, the ministry confirms that it is currently working on the construction of a new parking lot since May 1. The work will continue until the fall.

“The new parking lot will accommodate 20 spaces for trucks, 3 spaces for large road trains, as well as 12 spaces for buses and/or recreational vehicles,” said Jean-Philippe Langlais, spokesperson for the Ministry of Transport.

As for the renovation of the building and the upgrading of the drinking water and waste water systems, these works are planned later in 2025 and 2026. They will allow the renovation to modernize the existing building while retaining its character. current, it was said.

Although the costs of the Notre-Dame-du-Portage construction site have not been shared, it is part of the Ministry’s road park modernization plan, which provides for an investment of $150 million across Quebec. .

In 2022, the Government of Quebec announced that it wanted to renovate several of the roadside rest areas, most of which were built in the 1970s. These “have reached a significant level of dilapidation and disuse and therefore no longer meet the needs of road users” , it had been announced, arguing that “the hour [était] come to launch a vast project to replace the vast majority of the “brown cabins” open all year round.”