Heavy rain on Sunday, August 18 and into Monday, August 19 led to serious erosion and a landslide along Autoroute 50 in Grenville-sur-la-Rouge.
Photos show a section of a hill beside the highway, slid away and covered most of the road.
Due to safety concerns, just after 3 am on Monday morning, the Ministère des transports du Québec closed the highway between chemin Kilmar and chemin Avoca.
Crews cleared the landslide away and Autoroute 50 reopened just after 4:30 pm Monday.
A section of Route 148 near Calumet was also flooded on Monday morning due to a ditch overflowing onto the highway. A road crew was there directing traffic and digging out the ditch.
The section of chemin Kilmar between Autoroute 50 and Route 148 is paved, but in poor condition. On Monday morning, the road was busy with vehicles including many heavy trucks. Eventually, Autoroute 50 was instead closed at Route 344 so detour traffic would no longer have to use Kilmar.
Grenville-sur-la-Rouge Mayor Tom Arnold said the Québec government is aware the road is in poor condition and that traffic often uses it as a detour and connector between Route 148 and Autoroute 50. Grant funding has been provided to the municipality to repair the road. The project was to be done this summer, but has been delayed to 2025.
Arnold said there was no serious damage to municipal roads during Sunday and Monday’s heavy rain, but about $100,000 in damage had been done to municipal roads during Tropical Storm Debby which hit the area a week earlier.
