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A major step is underway to extend Montreal’s metro blue line east to Anjou, with excavation now officially in progress.
A massive tunnel-boring machine has begun drilling eastbound, launching what will be a two-year effort to carve out roughly five kilometres of tunnel and make way for five new stations.
The machine itself is a striking piece of engineering, spanning three storeys in diameter and weighing about 2,000 tonnes. Built in Montreal over the past three months after arriving in February, the German-made drill is designed to break through rock and debris while simultaneously constructing the tunnel lining.
Officials say the project has been decades in the making.
“Today is a great day for the east end of Montreal,” said Chantal Rouleau on Tuesday, MNA for Pointe-aux-Trembles. “We were waiting for that project for many, many, many years.”
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Project leaders say the specialized machine will allow crews to work efficiently, handling both excavation and finishing of the tunnel in one continuous process.
The tunneller has been named after Lisette St-Onge, who became Montreal’s first woman métro operator in 1981. The name was chosen through a public vote.
“I feel great, I feel nervous, I feel happy,” St-Onge said at the ceremony.
Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada says the investment goes beyond this project, pointing to future development opportunities in the city’s east end.
“We need to keep this tunnel machine because we have so many other projects we need to do,” she told reporters.
Excavation is expected to continue until 2028. Officials say the project remains on schedule and on budget, with a targeted opening date of 2031.
Once complete, the five new stations are expected to bring tens of thousands of additional users into the STM’s metro network.
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