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Autoroute 720
Ville-Marie Expressway Maintained by Transports Québec
Length:	8.5 km[1][2] (5.3 mi)
Formed:	1972 [2]
West end:	A-15 and A-20 in Montreal
Major junctions:	A-10 in downtown Montreal
East end:	Notre-Dame Street in downtown Montreal
Major cities:	Montreal
System:	City highway
Quebec provincial highways < A-640 A-740 >

Ville-Marie Expressway near Old Montreal

Autoroute 720 (or A-720, known as the Ville-Marie Expressway (English) or Autoroute Ville-Marie (French) is a spur route of Autoroute 20. Part of this multilane highway runs underground (below-grade) through downtown Montreal. Its western end starts at the Turcot Interchange, a junction with Autoroute 15 and Autoroute 20. Its eastern terminus is at the Jacques Cartier Bridge (Route 134) where the highway merges with Notre-Dame Street.

A-720's tunneled section begins from the west at Rue de la Montagne/Atwater Street (Exit 4) and remains underground to its current eastern end, except for a short section between Bleury St. and Saint Laurent Boulevard. The tunnelled section west of this gap is known as Ville-Marie Tunnel, and the section east of it is known as Viger Tunnel. However, locals regard both tunnels as one, and the term Ville-Marie Tunnel is often used to refer to both tunnels at once.

Future plans from the provincial transport ministry (Le ministère des Transports du Québec, or MTQ) are to extend this tunnel to Autoroute 25 at its Souligny Avenue interchange. The right-of-way has existed since the original layout of the 720, and buildings along the extension were demolished at that time, even though the 720 was not completed due to cost constraints. The government of Montreal would instead convert the portion of Notre Dame east of the Jacques Cartier bridge into a six-lane urban boulevard, instead of a sunken limited access expressway. It is currently an undivided four-lane city street. The final project has been approved, and work began on Souligny Avenue to double the span of the travel lanes. In late July 2009, there was a Autoroute 720 westbound shield that has been installed on this stretch.It was originally envisioned that Autoroute 20 would extend from the Turcot Interchange, along the route of the 720, to the Lafontaine Tunnel.

The Autoroute Ville-Marie designation is named after the downtown borough of Ville-Marie, through which the expressway is routed.

In 2007, working crews for Transports Québec discovered major cracks in a support pillar and closed several lanes of the expressway. Transports Quebec announced on August 10, 2007, major repair projects for a large section of the Expressway west of the Ville-Marie tunnel. ^[3] In addition, the full reconstruction of the Turcot Interchange in the next several years will also affect portions of the 720.

Interchanges from West to East

Looking east

Municipality	No.	Intersecting Roads	Notes
Montreal	1N	Autoroute 15 (Decarie Expressway) North	(westbound only)
	1S	Autoroute 15 / Autoroute 20 East	(westbound only)
	2	Rue Saint-Jacques	(westbound only)
	2	Rue Atwater	(eastbound only)
	3	Rue Guy	(eastbound only)
	4	Rue Atwater	(westbound only)
	4	Rue De La Montagne, Rue Saint-Jacques	(eastbound only)
	5	Champlain Bridge via Autoroute 10 (Bonaventure Expressway) / Rue University via Mansfield	(westbound only - inside tunnel)
	6	Saint Laurent Boulevard/ Rue Berri / Vieux-Montreal	(eastbound only)
	7	Jacques Cartier Bridge/Papineau Avenue/De Lorimier Ave. via Notre-Dame Street	(eastbound only - westbound at-grade intersection - eastern end of tunnel)
	8*	Ville-Marie Boulevard / Notre-Dame Street	*Exit number not signed, based on kilometre post
Approaching Turcot Interchange	Start of interchange	Near end of interchange	Ville-Marie expressway, after lanes merge from Decarie
Rue Guy exit	Rue St-Jacques/Rue de la Montagne exit	Beginning of tunnel	Entering the tunnel
East of Palais de Congres	Pont Jacques-Cartier exit	Near eastern terminus	Highway at Ville-Marie boulevard
Terminus at Notre-Dame

References

1. ^ Ministère des transports, "Distances routières", page (?), Les Publications du Québec, 2005
2. ^ ^{a b} "Répertoire des autoroutes du Québec" (in French). Transports Québec. http://www1.mtq.gouv.qc.ca/fr/repertoire_autoroute/autoroute.asp. Retrieved 2008-02-23.  
3. ^ Repairs

External links

• A-720 at Exitlists.com
• A-720 at Quebec Autoroutes
• Ville Marie Autoroute (A-720) at Steve Anderson's montrealroads.com
• Transports Quebec Map (French)