 Autoroute 50 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Autoroute Guy-Lafleur | ||||
 | ||||
| Route information | ||||
| Maintained by Transports Québec | ||||
| Length | 158.3 km[1][2] (98.4 mi) | |||
| Existed | 1975[1]–present | |||
| Major junctions | ||||
| West end | Rue Montcalm inGatineau | |||
| Major intersections |
| |||
| East end |  R-117 in Mirabel | |||
| Location | ||||
| Country | Canada | |||
| Province | Quebec | |||
| Major cities | Gatineau,Mirabel,Lachute,Brownsburg-Chatham,L'Ange-Gardien | |||
| Highway system | ||||
| ||||
Autoroute 50 (Autoroute Guy-Lafleur) is anAutoroute in westernQuebec, Canada. It links Canada'sNational Capital Region (Gatineau) and theGreater Montreal area (Mirabel).
Until November 2012, there were two distinct sections of A-50: one section running eastward fromHull and the other westward fromMirabel. The gap in the highway was filled on November 26, 2012, and thetwo-lane freeway opened for traffic on the full 159 km (98.8 mi) length.[3][4]
The route provides an east-west freeway alternative toRoute 148 that does not require travelling in Ontario, unlike the mainTrans-Canada Highway route (A-40 /Hwy 417).
Originally namedAutoroute de l'Outaouais, it was announced on April 28, 2023, that A-50 would be renamed to AutorouteGuy-Lafleur in honor of the formerMontreal Canadiens player who died oflung cancer a year earlier.[5] The Quebec government officially announced the name change on May 4 inThurso, Lafleur's birthplace.[6]
Oswald Parent (a Liberal MP from Hull) originally proposed construction of the A-50 in 1962. Eight years later, Quebec PremierJean-Jacques Bertrand announced plans for construction. It was originally envisioned that the A-50 would extend over 400 km fromL'Isle-aux-Allumettes at theOntario border throughSaint-Jérôme andJoliette along the Route 148 and158 corridors toBerthierville and a junction with theA-40. The primary purpose of the A-50 was to connect Ottawa and theOutaouais withMontréal–Mirabel International Airport.
At the time, theOttawa Macdonald–Cartier International Airport was not yet built, and the national capital lacked highway access to an international air hub. Mirabel's rapid decline as an air hub as well as the Quebec government's decision in the 1970s to impose a moratorium on new autoroute construction resulted in a significantly truncated route for the A-50. Plans for extending the A-50 west of Hull and east of theA-15/TCH were abandoned. The exit numbers, however, are based on that original projected length of the autoroute.
Construction was completed in the fall of 2007 on the road that connects Highway 148 west of the Aylmer and Hull sectors to the A-50 at theBoulevard des Allumettières interchange.
One short section of Route 158 aroundJoliette was originally signed as A-50 as well until the project was abandoned. In addition, west of the current terminus, a four-lane at-grade expressway continues as Route 148 into theAylmer section of Gatineau; it may become part of A-50 in the future.
A-50 is a four- to six-lanefreeway through Gatineau up toBuckingham, the remainder is mostly a two-lane freeway. Many overpasses are built to accommodate a fully divided, four-lane highway in the future such that only one portion of the overpass is currently used. However, there have been demands for a four-lane highway for the new segment so it can be safer. The first two segments were built with only two lanes and a 2007 multi-fatality accident occurred on highway 148 near Buckingham, a section of highway that A-50 would bypass.[7]
Unusual for a limited-access highway, the A-50 contains tworailwaycrossings at grade, both of theQuebec Gatineau Railway (QGRY). The first crosses the QGRY Lachute Subdivision between exits 260 and 272, at45°39′04″N74°13′45″W / 45.651008°N 74.229047°W /45.651008; -74.229047, while the second crosses the QGRY St-Jerome Spur about 1 km west of exit 279, at45°40′59″N74°07′34″W / 45.682948°N 74.125982°W /45.682948; -74.125982.
There has been some support to rename the highwayAutoroute Maurice-Richard after historicMontreal Canadienshockey playerMaurice Richard, but theCommission de toponymie du Québec chose to wait until the section betweenBuckingham andNotre-Dame-de-Bonsecours was finished before making a decision, and to date no renaming has happened.[8]
In 2022, following the death of Montreal Canadiens hockey legendGuy Lafleur (who was a native ofThurso), the Quebec government openly considered renaming the highway after Lafleur following a request made by the Minister Responsible for the Outaouais RegionMathieu Lacombe and by Thurso mayor Benoit Lauzon.[9][10] In late April 2023, Quebec newspaperLe Droit reported that the highway would officially be renamedAutoroute Guy-Lafleur in a ceremony happening in Thurso on Thursday, May 4, 2023, in which both Lacombe and QuebecpremierFrançois Legault would be in attendance for.[11][12]
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Following a series of fatal collisions in 2007, it was announced thatcentreline rumble strips would be installed in various no-passing zones along Autoroute 50. This is the first installation of its kind in Quebec and serves as a pilot project.
The two at-grade intersections at km 281 and 283 were removed in 2016.
| RCM | Location | km[2] | mi | Exit | Destinations | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gatineau | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | Rue Montcalm | At-grade intersection; western terminus | |
| 0.3 | 0.19 | 134 |  R-148 west (Boulevard des Allumettières) | Westbound exit and eastbound entrance; signed as exits 134-O (west) and 134-E (east); west end of R-148 concurrency | ||
| 1.3– 2.3 | 0.81– 1.4 | 135 |  A-5 (Autoroute de la Gatineau) –Gatineau Centre-Ville,Ottawa,Maniwaki | A-5 exit 2 | ||
| 3.5 | 2.2 | 138 |  R-307 (Rue Saint-Louis) –Cantley | |||
| 4.7 | 2.9 | 139 | R-148 east (Boulevard Maloney) | Eastbound exit and westbound entrance; east end of R-148 concurrency | ||
| 4.8 | 3.0 | 140 | Boulevard de La Gappe | Westbound access toR-148 east | ||
| 6.8 | 4.2 | 141 | Boulevard de La Vérendrye | Eastbound exit and westbound entrance | ||
| 11.1 | 6.9 | 145 | Montée Paiement | |||
| 13.7 | 8.5 | 147 | Boulevard Labrosse | |||
| 16.4 | 10.2 | 150 |  R-366 (Boulevard Lorrain) | |||
| 20.1 | 12.5 | 154 |  Boulevard de l'Aéroport –Gatineau-Ottawa Executive Airport | |||
| 25.7 | 16.0 | 159 | Avenue des Laurentides | |||
| 31.1 | 19.3 | 165 | Rue Georges | Eastbound exit and westbound entrance | ||
| 31.9 | 19.8 | 166 |  R-315 (Chemin de Masson / Avenue de Buckingham) toR-148 | Transition from 4 to 2 lanes or vice versa | ||
| 36.4 | 22.6 | 171 | Chemin Lépine | |||
| Les Collines-de-l'Outaouais | L'Ange-Gardien | 39.8 | 24.7 | 174 |  R-309 north / Chemin Doherty –Mont-Laurier | |
| Papineau | Thurso | 52.5 | 32.6 | 187 |  R-317 –Thurso,Ripon | |
| Plaisance | 62.8 | 39.0 | 197 | Montée Papineau | ||
| Papineauville | 70.3 | 43.7 | 205 |  R-321 –Papineauville,Saint-André-Avellin | Transition from 2 to 4 lanes or vice versa | |
| Notre-Dame-de-Bonsecours | 76.2 | 47.3 | 210 |  R-323 –Montebello,Mont-Tremblant | Transition from 4 to 2 lanes or vice versa | |
| Fassett | 82.7 | 51.4 | 216 | Fassett | ||
| Argenteuil | Grenville-sur-la-Rouge | 92.3 | 57.4 | 226 | Chemin Avoca –Grenville-sur-la-Rouge,Harrington | |
| 99.6 | 61.9 | 233 | Chemin Kilmar | |||
| 105.7 | 65.7 | 239 |  R-344 south toR-148 /Chemin Scotch –Grenville,Hawkesbury | ToOntario Highway 34 | ||
| Brownsburg-Chatham | 118.2 | 73.4 | 252 | Montée Labranche | ||
| 120.3 | 74.8 | 254 | R-148 (Rue Principale) –Lachute | Transition from 2 to 4 lanes or vice versa | ||
| Lachute | 124.2 | 77.2 | 258 |   R-327 (Avenue d'Argenteuil) –Saint-André-d'Argenteuil | ToCarillon–Pointe-Fortune ferry | |
| 126.3 | 78.5 | 260 |  R-329 (Chemin Béthanie) –Lachute Centre-Ville,Mirabel (Saint-Hermas) | Transition from 4 to 2 lanes or vice versa | ||
| Mirabel | 138.6 | 86.1 | 272 | R-148 (Route Arthur-Sauvé) toR-158 –Saint-Eustache | ||
| 145.2 | 90.2 | 279 | Saint-Colomban,Mirabel (Saint-Canut,Sainte-Scholastique) | |||
| 150.2 | 93.3 | 285 | Boulevard Henri-Fabre O. –Mirabel International Airport | Signed as exits 285-N (north) and 285-S (south) westbound; transition from 2 to 4 lanes or vice versa | ||
| 152.8 | 94.9 | 288 | Boulevard Henri-Fabre | |||
| 156.2– 157.9 | 97.1– 98.1 | 292 |   A-15 (TCH) (Autoroute des Laurentides) –Saint-Jérôme,Montréal | Signed as exits 292-N (north) and 292-S (south); exit 35 on A-15 | ||
| 158.3 | 98.4 | — | R-117 (Boulevard Curé-Labelle) –Saint-Jérôme,Mirabel (Saint-Janvier) | At-grade intersection; eastern terminus | ||
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi
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