Residents of eastern Montreal will have to wait until at least 2031 for the extension of the metro’s blue line to be completed, the city’s transportation authority said on Friday.

The Société de transport de Montréal (STM) had set a goal to complete the Blue Line by 2026 before postponing it to 2029 and then again to 2030.

In a technical briefing for journalists on Friday morning, the STM announced that it would also need over a billion dollars more than originally estimated to implement the extension.

The project cost is now estimated at $7.6 billion, compared to a previous estimate of $6.4 billion.

The extension of the blue line would add five stations to the metro network and would require the digging of a six-kilometer tunnel under Jean-Talon Street to connect Saint-Michel station to Highway 25 to the east.

At the end of the section, the construction of a new garage and seven buildings is planned.

Before the workers can dig the tunnel to a depth of 17 to 40 meters, they have to excavate 2.4 million tons of rock.

According to STM estimates, almost 69,000 passengers will use the new section every day.

Impact on Jean-Talon Street

Traffic on Jean-Talon Street will be closed for the next two years near the intersections of Pie-IX, Viau, Lacordaire and Langelier streets – where the new entrances will be built.

“We have been waiting for this project for exactly six years,” said Pierre Frisko, director of the commercial development company of Jean-Talon Street in Saint-Léonard. “Nothing has been done during these years, so it is clear that we welcome this news with relief.”

He noted that “large construction projects in Montreal generally bring a lot of problems,” but he wants the project to be “a great experience” and to take the opportunity to make the street more pedestrian-friendly.

In 2026, a tunnel boring machine will be lowered into the earth at the Pie-IX Street stop and will advance eastward at a speed of 12 meters per day.

The Laval stations (Cartier, de la Concorde and Montmorency) were the last to be inaugurated in April 2007.

The Acadie, Outremont, Université de Montréal, Édouard-Montpetit and Côte-des-Neiges stations, which form the western section of the Blue Line, were the last to be built on the island of Montreal in 1988.