Quebec to spend extra $1B to repair Montreal roads and overpasses, make roads safer

Quebec Transport Minister François Bonnardel said Monday the government will spend $6.7 billion for the maintenance and repair of infrastructure across the province, including more than $1 billion over two years exclusively for Montreal.

Accompanied by Chantal Rouleau — the minister responsible for the metropolis and the Montreal region — Bonnardel announced spending of $1,019,028,000 for 31 projects in the metropolis.

Of that sum, $23 million will be dedicated to roads, $984 million will go to repairing and rebuilding overpasses and similar structures, and $11.6 million will be used to improve the efficiency and safety of the network, to comply with coroner's recommendations, he said.

The billion dollars over two years, which Rouleau described as "colossal," will be used for projects that include:

• The reconstruction of the Highway 520 overpass over McArthur and Hickmore streets.
• The reconstruction of the Highway 520 overpass over Highway 13.
• The repair of the 1st  Avenue overpass and retaining walls over Highway 20 in Lachine.
• The reconstruction of the Boulevard des Galeries-d'Anjou overpass, over Highway 40.

The reconstruction of the overpass in Anjou will play an especially important role in the project to extend the Montreal Metro Blue line, said Rouleau, by making the station easier to get to and more accessible.

Some of the funds will also go to continued maintenance work on the Saint-Pierre interchange, on the Honoré-Mercier Bridge and on elevated sections of Highway 136, she said.

Work speeded up

The announcement comes less than seven months before a provincial election.

Rouleau said the CAQ government's recently enacted legislation to speed up infrastructure projects made it possible to move up the work "by several months.''

The extension of Souligny Avenue and l'Assomption Boulevard to improve the flow of traffic for trucks using the Port of Montreal and the reconstruction of the Île-aux-Tourtes Bridge also benefit from the accelerated process, she said.

Bonnardel said he was proud of the Ministry of Transport's 93 per cent average work completion rate.

"Over the past four years, the Quebec Infrastructure Plan over 10 years was $100 billion,'' he said. ''In three years, we have gone from 100 to 135 billion in investments."

Over the next two years, the government plans to devote $1.5 billion to repairing roads, $2.7 billion to repairing structures, $2.2 billion to efficiency and network security, $1.8 billion for marine projects, $226 million for rail projects, $114 million for airport projects, and $15 million for the maintenance of culverts on abandoned railway rights-of-way.