Clinched Highway Mapping

oscar_voss · Joined: 27 Jul 2008 Posts: 622 Location: Arlington VA

Yesterday, I drove a new 5-km segment of A-73, east of St.-Georges. It's not connected to the part of A-73 in the Highway Browser, and won't be until next summer at the earliest.

The St.-Georges A-73 segment is four lanes divided, with A-73 markers on the segment itself, at its two junctions, and on QC 173 pointing motorists to the new segment. It has two junctions with other roads: a roundabout junction with QC 204 at its south end, and a grade-separated interchange with 74e Rue. The latter is marked as exit 48; no exit number for the QC 204 roundabout. Open Street Map shows the routing of the new segment.

OSM also shows the routing of a 13-km segment under construction, to connect the St.-Georges segment to the rest of A-73. It still needs a lot of work, but construction zone signs indicate plans to open it to traffic in August 2015. I poked around the construction zone on my way back to Quebec city. My guess is that it will have no new interchanges.

Finally, I checked out A-73 north of Quebec city. The freeway has been extended from its old end at exit 167 to its new end at exit 182, with two more new interchanges at exits 169 and 174 (no indication of any new interchanges planned north of exit 182, to replace the at-grade crossings that begin just north of there). Wikipedia has A-73 including those three new exits. However, A-73 signage still stops at exit 167, with a "FIN" end marker northbound at that interchange. Even though the A-73 exit numbers continue past exit 167, there are only QC 175 route markers, and the km-posts reflect distances from QC 175's south end rather than from the U.S. border as with A-73. (Not that I expect A-73 to reach the border anytime soon.) So no changes in the Highway Browser needed at this point for the north end of A-73, but it wouldn't surprise me if it gets extended soon to exit 182.

oscar_voss · Joined: 27 Jul 2008 Posts: 622 Location: Arlington VA

I've just posted at the aaroads.com forum some photos of A-73's St.-Georges segment, and construction underway to connect it to the rest of A-73. It fleshes out some of the info I provided above about the new and upcoming A-73 segments.

The discussion there so far has pointed out one new interchange to be added to A-73 in the new segment under construction (shown in Google Maps if you zoom in really close). Hopefully OSM will catch up with that new interchange, by the time the new segment opens next year.

oscar_voss · Joined: 27 Jul 2008 Posts: 622 Location: Arlington VA

St-Georges segment now in the Travel Mapping DB.

Leaving this topic open, since construction is underway (expected completion in mid-2016) to connect the St-Georges segment to the rest of A-73.