Project Management Award of Excellence
Turcot Interchange and Railways Reconstruction Project AECOM
A
Rethinking a place The Turcot Interchange had reached the end of its service life. Its rebuilding was an opportunity to modernize a key junction, rethink its place within the urban fabric and reclassify the land on which a previously decommissioned railyard was located. Much more extensive than the interchange itself, the project consists of rebuilding four interchanges and three highway sections (15, 20 and 720), moving the transcontinental railway and adding new municipal connections in anticipation of future development and to improve existing infrastructure. The project location spans a dense and diverse metropolitan area. With a budget of $3.67 billion, it is the 52
CANADIAN CONSULTING ENGINEER
largest highway construction project in Quebec history. The project team co-ordinated with multiple stakeholders, whose interests sometimes differed, to achieve consensus on proposed project elements. These stakeholders included the cities of Montreal West and Westmount, five boroughs, Canadian National Railway (CN), Canada Pacific Railway (CP), Réseau de transport métropolitain (RTM), Société de transport de Montréal (STM) and Parks Canada. The integrated project team established a work breakdown, whereby 35 simultaneous work packages would be delivered under
“Connecting spans of bridge during the night minimized the pain. You wouldn’t recognize it the next day!” - Jury
a traditional project delivery model, while one other major contract would deliver another portion of the project under a design-build model. Undertaken simultaneously, they required extensive planning and co-ordination to effectively deliver the broad scope of work. Separate and dedicated teams were set up to manage the two models and prevent any schedule delays. Railroad displacement, which falls under federal jurisdiction, added to the complexity of standards, access sharing and uninterrupted functionality. The main challenge was rebuilding in constrained spaces below or
PHOTO COU RT E SY A ECOM A N D T ET R A T EC H.
consortium formed by AECOM and Tetra Tech acted as the owner’s engineer in the Turcot Interchange project for the last 12 years, as part of an integrated team with Ministère des Transports du Québec (MTQ). A combination of alternative and traditional delivery methods made the implementation and integration of this project possible in an urban setting, while keeping Canada’s busiest road sector active.
September/October 2021
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