Pop that bubbly: gateway to the west end set to reopen

   The St. James exit (officially St. Jacques St exit) on westbound highway 20 is the gateway to the west end, but alas it has been closed 14 of the last 19 months due to construction of the new superhospital, leading to whiteknuckle traffic congestion throughout the alternate routes.
   The structure was first closed February 1, 2011 without warning, and was supposed to reopen on June 24, 2011 but they kept it closed for an extra two-and-a-half months as they did sewer repairs, right up until September 10.
   So when they announced in February that they were shutting it once again until September, it was  
easy to assume that they really meant a later date.
   But a Coolopolis inspection of the structure today revealed that it's pretty much ready to go right now and will almost-surely be reopened very soon.
  In fact, just hours after this text was written, authorities announced that Coolopolis was right again and that it will reopen sometime Friday night.
  This will be a huge relief to motorists who will save about 10 minutes on their trips and cumulatively speaking 10 minutes times thousands per day ends up being a lot more productivity, families spending time with their kids and other good things.   It will also mean a decline in traffic through other residential areas such as in St. Henry and the Cote St. Luc road exit area.
   In this year's closure, the exit was demolished entirely and and rebuilt the new version appears to have a few more little turns in it.
   The hospital would have liked to put a turn-off onto this ramp that would go right to the hospital but it was deemed that cars would be going so fast down the structure that someone slowing down to turn off would be unsafe. So that extra traffic will be routed up Decarie, unfortunately.
  The structure has a nice profile on the archway, which presumably will contain another entrance to the site, I believe this one would be for employees or ambulances or some such.