Montreal city officials tell Global News they plan to spend $500 million on road repairs this year. That amount is in addition to the $700 million budgeted to replace and rebuild Montreal’s water and sewage infrastructure network.
Maja Vodanovic, who sits on Montreal’s executive committee, says the city is trying to get as much work done this year as possible but it will take years to complete.
She says the extreme weather conditions has wreaked havoc on the city’s road infrastructure.
“This winter is one of the worst years for potholes because the extremes in temperature were huge and we received a tremendous amount of water,” she told Global News.
A civil engineer at Concordia University says Montreal’s drainage system is inadequate and is largely to blame for the deteriorating conditions. The heavy rainfall, which leads to water accumulation combined with freezing temperatures in the winter, puts the city’s road infrastructure into a fragile state.
“The water accumulation in the ground needs to be drained,” Adel Hanna, a Concordia University civil engineer, told Global News.
Hanna says the quality of asphalt used to pave and rebuild roads needs to be improved as well.
“The two of them together contributed to the deterioration of our roads in Montreal,” he said.
Hundreds of public work projects are scheduled on Montreal roads this year.
Vodanovic says she realizes many streets still won’t be repaired but the city can’t do all the work at once — otherwise there would be too many closed roads.
And the city can’t afford to make all the repairs in one shot.
“We would like to see everything fixed but we don’t have the budget. We don’t have the means. We do what we can,” she said.
Drivers will have to pack a lot of patience as Montreal ramps up its road repair blitz this spring and summer.