Thursday, August 20, 2026
A major milestone has been reached in construction of Montreal’s Blue Line Extension project, as vertical excavation of the future Mary-Two-Axe-Earley (Viau) and Cesira-Parisotto (Lacordaire) stations has been completed. That’s in addition to the Vertières and Madeleine-Parent stations, where vertical excavation was completed in fall 2025.
A total of four stations have now reached their final depths.
The Montreal Metro Blue Line Extension is No. 10 on ReNew Canada’s 2026 Top100 Projects report.
Mary-Two-Axe-Earley Station (Viau sector)
- Depth reached: 30 metres deep, the equivalent of a 10-storey building
- Over 88,000 m³ of excavated earth and rock, including the emergency exit and tunnel entrance. That’s about 24 Olympic swimming pools.
Cesira-Parisotto Station (Lacordaire sector)
More than 70,000 cubic metres of earth and rock have been excavated at this site, the equivalent of 19 Olympic swimming pools.
Depth reached: 31 metres deep, the equivalent of a 10-storey building
Time-lapse videos show the extent of the work completed since construction began and reveal the tunnel entrances being excavated by a roadheader—that impressive excavation machine that gnaws its way through the rock face.
More milestones by the end of the year
Mary-Two-Axe-Earley Station is gearing up for the tunnel boring machine Lisette this fall, including construction of a slipway that will allow the machine to slide through the sections that have already been excavated. At the same time, the crews are still hard at work at the future Anjou station, where construction began a few months later. The final excavation depth is expected to be reached by the end of 2026.
Featured image: (STM)
