Transport Quebec warns motorists: stay away from Turcot Interchange this weekend

It was built below specs and has been poorly maintained.  Saving on maintenance costs in the first 3 decades created  full time maintenance contracts that has cost, and will cost taxpayer’s, over 100′s of  million of dollars to maintain a structure that is scheduled to be torn down.  Somebody has done alright with that. But not you and me.

By Billy Shields Global News

MONTREAL – Transport Quebec announced a series of closures this weekend as it ramps up badly needed work on the Turcot Interchange.

Starting at 10 p.m. Friday until 5 a.m. Monday, the A-720 West ramp to the A-15 South and the A-20 East ramp toward the A-15 South will be closed.

The A-15 South within the interchange and the A-15 South ramp to the A-720 will be closed in the evening Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

South Shore motorists are advised to take either the Victoria or Jacques-Cartier bridges, or to use the Autoroute Bonaventure.

Officials are also telling drivers to avoid the interchange entirely — small comfort if you’re a West Island driver needing to get to the downtown core.

“It’s hard when you have to drive to Montreal, I avoid it at all costs,” one driver said coming off the Turcot.

This work is the precursor to the major overhaul of the interchange, one that now has a sticker price of $3.7 billion, and that won’t be done till 2020.

Renovations are expected to continue through August, although the province wants to get much of the work done as early as possible to avoid butting up against Montreal’s summer construction blitz.

Civil engineer Saeed Mirza said that the Turcot overhaul — which was put off for years by successive administrations — represents a failure in management.

Unfortunately our present philosophy is design, build, and forget. and leave the maintenance to somebody else,” he said.

When the Turcot was built in the 1960s, it was a crucial transit cog in the city’s infrastructure, now routine maintenance costs tens of millions of dollars a year.

Story here.

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Sexy Beton

Attended the play, Sexy Beton, at the Segal Centre last night. It’s about what happened after the de la Concorde overpass in Laval collapsed and killed 5 people, seriously wounding 6 others. This meticulously researched and well acted “documentary” play raises some hard questions. The Johnson Commission that investigated the collapse concluded that no one was responsible. And the victims were told that the accident would be classified as a car accident by the SAQ and compensation would be as regularly paid out under the universal no fault system. That was not even enough to replace their cars.
It is three years ago today that the collapse happened and it is clear that we have failed in our ability to take responsibility, seek justice, and demand appropriate penalties and compensation.
A good part of the play shows the process by which many potentially revealing sources get swept under the rug through rhetoric and indifference and fear in an attempt to find the origins of the problems with the overpass.
Today Transport Quebec is saying that their “culture” has changed and are spinning on about slowly meeting recommendations of the Johnson Commission.

Sexy Beton

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The Doney Spur (4)

Continuing the journey with Avrom Shtern and Andrew Dawson.

Here is a map of this leg. We started at Sources and went east.

As far as I know the La Belle Province on the left is the only open 24 hours place on the entire West Island.

Trains used to go right up to that door. (right in?).

Avrom and Andrew checking out one of the countless sidings, wyes, and backtracks that have been pulled up but attest to how busy the Doney was in it’s day.

They used to load up here but the doors are bricked up.

Avenue Andre.

Had to follow this one.

There was all kinds of these on the tracks. Maybe they like the warmth? This was a very hot day. It’s usually about 3-5 degrees warmer on the tracks as the steel gets hot, but the ballast also holds it in like a good old brick oven!

It s astonishing how much rust the rails can take and still be usable ( at very slow speeds I would guess).

Start of the Saint Francois Spur.

Here it splits. That is Golf Dorval (what’s left of it) due south.

I don’t think you will see a diamond crossing with a switch going into a building like that too often.

Back on the Doney, still active over in there.

Approaching the bridge that crosses the 40 otherwise known as the Trans Canada Highway.

Looking west.

Looking east. This was a Sunday afternoon. Traffic, what traffic?

And we called it a day up ahead at rue Douglas -B- Floreani.

We had taken the 215 bus from Cote Vertu Metro to get out to Sources and took the 215 back to Cote Vertu. While I am often critical of our (lack of) public transportation, I am quite willing to offer praise when it works so damn well as that!  Cars, on the other hand, are not very good for this kind of trekking as you have to walk all the way back to where the car is parked. Was a good one.

More to come.

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Meadowbrook (2)

Last week I had the pleasure of touring the south side of Meadowbrook with a few of Les Amis de Meadowbrook. Here is a shot of the Little Saint Pierre River, the only open, still active, probably very polluted, part of this river that once flowed to the Falaise Saint Jacques and ran through Turcot Yards before making its’ way to the Saint Lawrence via Ville Emard and Verdun.

The southern corner, some golf and some housing.

South end of the passenger train yard.

Down at the extreme southern corner lies this obstacle, at least it would be an obstacle in connecting with the Falaise Saint Jacques via a bike/hike route. It would require the cooperation of the railroad to put a separate bridge somewhere through there but it is very doable.

And looking to the left of the bottom track we see a bridge that crosses Westminster street.

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The Sources Interchange

Built in the 60′s when it was believed that concrete could be sexy this thing has more curves than a belly dancer convention. Last Sunday was pretty nice and I had a chance to walk across the pedestrian overpass. This one is also on the list to be renovated or rebuilt.

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Tolls, Taxes, And The Price Ya Pay!

The Gazette Op-Ed pages today are filled with comments about the concept of there being tolls on the bridges to Montreal Island. An editorial says, “Bridge Tolls? Why Not? Road Tolls? No Way!” And Henry Aubin suggests that tolls are not the way to go but instead there should just be a raise in gasoline taxes. I have talked generally about the idea of Congestion Pricing in the past as an option gaining credibility around the world. And all these talks of raising money are about how to pay for the massive road infrastructure replacements and repairs that are desperately needed in Quebec.

So there are three choices.

1) Putting tolls on bridges (and possibly all highways).

2) Raising gasoline taxes.

3) Congestion Pricing ( pay as you go in Montreal).

And if you answered all of the above you win the prize. The rest of you will just have to get used to the idea that while it will not happen overnight, it is very difficult for me to imagine a form of all three not happening 10 years from now. The city and the province need money and repairing and building highway infrastructure is not going to suddenly start getting cheaper. Gasoline may be out of reach for 25% or more of the drivers on the road today in 10 years. Something has to give, and it’s going to be the price ya pay!
And that, folks, is today’s doomsday report! (smile).

Study in Ontario recommends tolls, tax hikes.

And perhaps the biggest concern for the future of our roads is who will be administering the tolls, etc? There are already companies who administer road tolls throughout Europe and it is starting to happen in US states such as Indiana and Colorado. The privatization of roads will make driving on them a privilege, not the God given right that we have come to take for granted. That could all be long term good news for cities as people and businesses may be much more likely to look at the urban core as the most practical place to be.

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Infrastructure Collapsing in Canada?

This is going across the wire today.

Canada’s infrastructure deficit hits $123 billion, report says

OTTAWA – Canada’s water treatment facilities, roads and public infrastructure is on the verge of collapse because of a $123-billion building deficit, a new report warned Tuesday.

The report, released by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, suggests that the cost of fixing crumbling infrastructure has more than doubled over the past four years, and will continue to rise if no new investments are made.

“Across Canada, municipal infrastructure has reached the breaking point,” reads the study written by Dr. Saeed Mirza, a McGill University civil engineering professor in Montreal. “Most was built between the 1950s and 1970s, and much of it is due for replacement. We can see the consequences in every community: potholes and crumbling bridges, water-treatment and transit systems that cannot keep up with demand, traffic gridlock, poor air quality and a lack of affordable housing.”

the deficit into five categories. He estimated that $31 billion would be needed for water and waste water systems, $21.7 billion for transportation, $22.8 billion for transit, $7.7 billion for waste management, and $40.2 billion for community, recreational, cultural and social infrastructure.

“It points to a looming crisis that if unchecked, will reduce our standard of living, our safety and our quality of life as Canadians,” said Gord Steeves, president of the federation, at a news conference. “The report says that Canada’s public infrastructure is at 79 per cent of its service life and that municipal infrastructure has reached its breaking point. It shows that the physical foundation of Canada’s cities and communities are near collapse.”

The federation estimated that municipalities would need to raise property taxes by 40 per cent to cover the estimated infrastructure deficit, so it is calling on the federal government to replace its existing patchwork of ad hoc program’s with a new national program to address all of their concerns.

“It is a wakeup call to everyone who thinks we can ignore our decaying municipal infrastructure or tackle it with half measures,” said Steeves. “We’re not saying that our bridges will begin falling down tomorrow, but we are saying that if serious action is not taken now, our infrastructure is headed for collapse. The problem will simply overtake us.”

mdesouzacanwest.com

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Johnson Commission Report

This Gazette article looks at what some of the likely proposals of the Johnson Commission (due on Thursday) will be. One significant suggestion will be redirecting authority of bridges and overpasses from the municipalities back to Transport Quebec. However, it is a bit of a no-brainer to anyone who has been paying attention. People have died because of a very obvious history of negligence and incompetence. No one will be held accountable. Billions will be spent to correct the damage. I usually like to think we live in a better place than that, yet there it is. And barely a whimper form the voters/taxpayers.

“Chain of Causes“

Update

No one is being blamed yet they see fault with almost everything in the construction and maintenance of the Laval overpass that killed 5 people last year. Story here.

And no official apology by the government. More here.

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