In a new twist for the planned Quebec City - Lévis tunnel ("Third Link", a pet project of Premier François Legault), the premier of Quebec François Legault said that the project will be "adjusted". The premier said this in a question-answer session of the National Assembly while answering the questions over the project to connect Quebec City and Lévis via a tunnel under the St. Lawrence River.

Answering Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois' (of Quebec solidaire) question of how much would the so-called "Third Link" cost, the premier answered that it would be evaluated in the coming months and only then the costs would be known in a fairly precise way how much the adjusted project would cost. Here the interesting word was the "adjusted".

It is also interesting that only short time ago his Transport Minister had said that the precise estimates would not be known until 2025. But on Thursday, the Premier mentioned only a few months to come up with a precise cost estimate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMkR5uYxH3g

Also interesting was the Premier seemed to be questioning the 6 lanes the currently planned 8.3km long tunnel would have. In the current plans it is a tunnel of 19.4m in diameter, double-deck tunnel with each deck having three lanes in opposite directions.

But in his answer, the Premier said, "the Minister of Transport is seeing whether it takes two more lanes, four more lanes. It total, do we need two lanes, four lanes, six lanes?"

If a six-lane double-deck tunnel is built, it will be one of the biggest diameter tunnels in the world. There aren't many construction companies with such a big tunnel in their CVs. It is absolute top end of the tunneling and with not much competition, hence probably companies can command premium prices. The same is true also for the Tunnel Boring Machines, assuming TBM method will be used for construction. Probably there are one or two manufacturers who have experience of producing a TBM to excavate such a big diameter tunnel. Hence again probably you can expect premium pricing. Estimates being talked range from $7 Billion - $10Billion.

In November, the outgoing Quebec City Mayor Regis Labeaume, on his last day in the office, had urged the government not to build the tunnel arguing that the tunnel would not reduce the traffic and instead other solutions like adding new lanes to existing two bridges in Quebec City, like they did in Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

The Réseau express de la Capitale (REC) page for the project. It has also links to feasibility study and other related documents.

https://www.rec.quebec/tunnel-quebec-levis/

(Drawings are from Le Réseau express de la Capitale (REC))