A ceremony in Montréal on Tuesday marked the symbolic start of tunnelling for the city’s Blue Line Project.
Starting at the future Vertières station at Boulevard Pie-IX and Rue Jean-Talon, TBM Lisette will dig 4.6km of the 6km tunnel extending the Blue Line. Tunnelling is expected to be completed in early 2028.
The extension will add five new stations east of Saint-Michel station, bringing the Blue Line into Anjou.
TBM Lisette is named in honour of the first female operator for the Montréal Metro and is the first TBM to be used on the network. It is also the largest to be deployed in Québec.
During the drive, 9.7m-diameter TBM Lisette will excavate 300,000m3 of rock and install 14,300 concrete segments. The rock extracted from the tunnel will be sent to the Saint-Michel quarry, located near the Vertières shipyard, to be reused by the City of Montreal.
“The launch of the tunnel boring machine marks a historic moment for mobility in Montréal’s east end. Public transit is of paramount importance to our government, and our investment in this project is a concrete example of that. We are working for the quality of life and mobility of Montrealers,” said transport and sustainable mobility minister Benoit Charette.
