ROUTE173 AND 201

This website is mainly about Highway 73 but this highway is parallel to the Route 173 and Route 201 corridor.  This corridor has been there for decades creating a link between the United States and Canada, Maine and Quebec, Beauce and Somerset.  Highway 73 will soon be completed from Quebec City to St.Georges but from there to the border, Route 173 will still be the link to the United States.  Route 173 and Route 201 are the important links between Highway 95 and Highway 73. In fact, that corridor has been named the Kennebec-Chaudiere International Corridor.

Route 173

Before 1970, Route 173 was the only North-South link from Quebec City to the Border.  Since then, Highway 73 was added.  Today, Route 173 remains the backbone of the entire Beauce region.  In the past 10 years, a great deal of improvements was made on that road.  From the end of Highway 73 in Beauceville to St.Georges the road was widened in many urban areas, new shoulders were added, pavement was redone and now we can finally say that that road is better and safer.  In the City of St.Georges, Route 173 is also the main artery (Lacroix Boulevard).  From 1994 to 2007 the road was widened to 4 lanes throughout the city.

Further south in the Town of St.Come, road was also redone and improved. Same goes from there to the Maine border. The largest improvement happened just north of the border where the road was entirely reconfigured to properly connect to the new border installations.  Route 173 is now divided with a separate southbound lane for trucks heading directly to the U.S. border station Truck Lane.  Overall these improvements greatly reduced congestion during the busy summer period.

Route 201

On the U.S. side, Route 201 has been greatly improved over the last decade. Curves were straightened, bridges were redone, pavement was redone and maintained.  Although the road can be winding in some areas, it's now much safer than it used to be before the 90's. More recently, improvements were done just north of Skowhegan up to Madison. There is a proposed private east-west highway in Maine and if it is constructed, there will be an interchange with Route 201 near The Forks.  If this happens it will make the 73-173-201 north-south road even more attractive. Eastern Maine would have better access to 173 and 73 to Quebec City.  Quebec would have a better access to Western and Down East Maine, Acadia and New Brunswick.