As Turcot crumbles, will new agency streamline construction?

MONTREAL – Outside the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Montreal, a clutch of vocal picketers gathered with megaphones and pamphlets on the street.

They were the welcoming party for Quebec Transport Minister Sylvain Gaudreault.

The protesters – drawn from a union that represents government workers – were opposing a new infrastructure agency that Gaudreault hopes will streamline awarding construction contracts.

Gaudreault touts the new agency as a way to ensure transparency, save money and limit cronyism. But Thérèse Boileau of the SFPQ says the agency will do just the opposite: consist of the minister’s allies who will be loyal to him.

Also at play – an infrastructure issue that has been a provincial headache for years: the ageing Turcot Interchange.

About 300,000 vehicles use the cloverleaf a day, and it links Highway 20, Highway 15 and Highway 720. The “new Turcot” is scheduled to start construction next year, but a final contractor hasn’t been chosen yet, and it’s already two years behind schedule.

“We want it to go faster, but we have a real strict process,” Gaudreault said. And, he added, the project is in its final step of choosing the contract.

For some Montrealers, change can’t come soon enough.

“Humans being humans, we procrastinate and we’ll deal with problems when they arise,” said Danny Julien, who works downtown. “Now we have problems.”

It is projected to cost almost $300 million between 2007 and 2015 to maintenance the existing structure.

“How much?” asked Teresa Amorosa, who was walking down St. Catherine Street. “It just irks me. It just totally makes my stomach rot.”