Surprise, surprise, Transport Quebec found yet another dangerously decaying section of highway in the province. To every driver's delight it happens to be on a major route connecting the Decarie Expressway to the Champlain Bridge. For those of you who don't know Montreal, suffice it to say that this particular stretch of road sees about 31, 000 vehicles a day. Engineering firms monitoring the state of the city's highway infrastructure referred to the problem as a "degradation in the concrete". They can use all the technical terms they want, when your sailing along at a hundred feet off the ground "degradation of concrete" is not what you want to hear.
This sort of revelation is not new for our fair city, highways and overpasses have been falling apart, and some even falling down, for some time now. What is driving most motorists crazy is the political ping pong game that is keeping the province from fixing the problems.
Of course, it needs to be said that successive governments in this province have ignored this problem for decades. As if the massive cracks in the Turcot interchange and other roadways would just magically vanish. As it turns out, there is no infrastructure fairy, just a lot of rain, snow, road salt, heavy traffic and a sackful of neglect. Since the vast majority of citizens are not concrete engineers, the responsibility of monitoring this situation fell squarely on the shoulders of our elected officials. Typically, it wasn't until someone was crushed to death by a collapsing overpass that the folks in Quebec City awoke from their stupor and decided to do something. Only then did we learn the truth about what many had already suspected, that our road system was in dangerously poor condition.
The government has addressed some of these issues, a few with stop-gap measures and others with major overhauls. Like many drivers, I am relieved at these moves, but am still sceptical. With this recent revelation, one wonders why it was not discovered sooner, considering it is a major artery on a section of highway that has already been identified as requiring a major overhaul.
So much so, that the provincial government announced last year that the Turcot interchange was beyond long-term repair and would have to be scrapped in favour of a new structure. The province had put forward a $2.6 billion plan to raze then rebuild the interchange. Enter Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay. The Mayor counter-proposed with a plan that would cost $6 billion dollars, would reduce traffic flow and supposedly boost public transit.
The fact that we are even having this discussion is absurd to me. While I am in favour of increased use of public transit, to expect thousands of vehicles that use the interchange every day to suddenly vanish overnight is completely naïve. The real issue at the heart of this debate are the homes that will be annexed and demolished in order to accommodate the province's plan. While Tremblay's counter proposal would allow property owners to keep their homes, it fails to address the real-world issue of traffic flow on a vital metropolitan artery. His proposal is political, designed to play up to voters by painting the provincial government as uncaring towards its citizens and environmentally insensitive. It is also completely unrealistic, and seemingly conceived to be rejected.
This is politics at its worst. Rather than addressing actual issues, politicians gamble with the needs demands of citizens to advance their own personal agendas. The net result, a solution with which nobody is satisfied.
Meanwhile, drivers and passengers around this city continue to keep their eyes open and pray they are not the next victim of an errant chunk of a crumbling city.
Maybe it would speed things up if this debate was held under the Turcot interchange.
Ah, forget those guys, it's freakin' Game Seven. Go Habs, Go.
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