Southern section , facing southwards at the
Autoroute 20 junction (Exit 63) The southern section of A-15 connects the
south shore suburbs of
Montreal and is also the primary trade corridor route between Montreal and
New York City linking Quebec Autoroute 15 to
Interstate 87 at the Canada-United States border at the
Champlain-St. Bernard de Lacolle Border Crossing. This was the former
Route 9, and connected with
US 9 on the western shore of
Lake Champlain. In
Brossard, it joins up with
A-10 and
A-20 across the
Champlain Bridge into Montreal. The A-10 splits off almost immediately after crossing the bridge to head into downtown Montreal at the
Bonaventure Expressway and the A-20 splits off shortly after at the
Turcot Interchange (
échangeur Turcot), leaving the A-15 to continue northward as Autoroute Décarie until the
Décarie Interchange (
échangeur Décarie) with the A-40 at the point where it turns from the
Trans-Canada into the Metropolitan Expressway. The route is also connected to
Autoroute 30 in
Candiac which was completed to
Autoroute 20 in 2012 providing quick access to the south shore of Montreal, to southern communities located alongside Autoroute 15 and to the
Canada–US border in
Lacolle. It will also give quicker access from there to areas west of Montreal and also
Ottawa and
Gatineau.
Décarie Autoroute The Décarie Autoroute is a
sunken highway between the northbound and southbound lanes of Decarie Boulevard from the
Metropolitan Autoroute at its northern end to
Monkland Avenue and the
Villa Maria Metro station at its southern end. It was built on a wide expanse of vacant land, donated to the city by the Décarie estate on the condition that a streetcar line would be established. The decommissioning of the streetcar system in 1959 left the right-of-way as an obvious choice for a highway and so the Décarie Autoroute was dug there. South of
Queen Mary Road, however, a significant number of houses were demolished. To avoid demolishing Notre-Dame-de-Grâce Church, the highway makes a slight westerly jog below
Côte-Saint-Luc Road and runs through a short
tunnel, before emerging between Addington and Botrel Streets and running down to
Sherbrooke Street and
Saint Jacques Street, where it spectacularly goes from being below the ground to well above the ground as it intersects with
Autoroute 20 and
Route 136 in the infamous
Turcot Interchange (dubbed "
Spaghetti Junction" by train crews operating the former CN Rail Turcot Yard). Following the conversion from streetcar line to the highway, the Décarie estate sued the city but was unable to prevail because it did not document its case well enough for the nevertheless sympathetic court.
Décarie Boulevard Décarie Boulevard itself continues; from
Monkland Avenue south to Saint Jacques Street past the
McGill University Health Centre Glen Campus superhospital; and from
Autoroute 40 north into
Montreal past
Du College station and
Côte-Vertu station/
Norgate shopping centre to Poirier Street. Between Monkland Avenue and
A 40, Décarie Boulevard serves as sort of a service road on both sides of the autoroute.
Northern section After its concurrency with
A-40, the northern section of A-15 is the main highway route to the
Laurentian Mountains or
Laurentides, until it downgrades to
Route 117. It also links up to the northern suburbs of Montreal, as well as provides a connection to the
A-440,
A-640 and the
A-50 in
Mirabel. The first section from A-40 to
Saint-Jérôme was opened on August 29, 1959 (source Montreal Star Aug. 29, 1959, page 3) as a toll road, although the tolls were removed in 1985. This section was also the first to be designed as an autoroute in the province. It was named Autoroute Montréal-Laurentides during the 1960s. Over the next years, it was extended north to Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts as a new connection to touristic and skiing destinations in the Laurentides including in
Saint-Sauveur,
Sainte-Adèle and
Estérel. In the future, it is possible that the A-15 may continue even farther north, past
Mont-Tremblant, as Route 117 is already an at-grade expressway with a freeway bypass of Mont-Tremblant completed, and the name
Autoroute des Laurentides is also recognized on the freeway bypass (and exit numbers continue). This section is numbered separately from the southern section as if it were a different route. The northern route is also part of the
Trans-Canada Highway. ==Exit list==