No repair work on Sources boulevard overpass this year

Watch: Sources Boulevard overpass repairs delayed

MONTREAL – Users of the Sources Boulevard overpass will have to wait at least another year before any major repairs are done on the structure above Highway 20.

Transports Quebec told Global News that plans to secure the elevated structure have been indefinitely postponed.

“They need more studies to plan ahead for major work that could be done,” said Mario St-Pierre of Transports Quebec.

Major repair work was scheduled for this year, but that has since changed as Transports Quebec engineers needed more time to study the structure.

A 100-page engineering report published last November called for the structure to be entirely demolished and rebuilt.

The report also warned that pieces of concrete are at risk of falling from the overpass at different locations including onto  highway 20.

READ MORE: Transports Quebec report recommends replacing Sources Boulevard overpass

But St-Pierre argued that the public has nothing to fear.

“The infrastructure is very safe and is being monitored closely,” he said.

However overpass safety is a concern for many Montreal drivers, especially after a piece of concrete fell from the Henri-Bourassa overpass in January, hitting a BMW SUV on the A40.

READ MORE: Trans-Canada Highway 40 reopens after car crushed by falling debris

Some fear something similar, or worse, could happen on the Sources Boulevard overpass unless major renovations or repair work is done soon.

“Sections of an overpass have fallen in this province,” Morris Trudeau, mayor of Pointe-Claire told Global News.

“Hopefully, it won’t happen again, but it is a concern of ours.”

Trudeau has already ordered a complete overhaul of the St-Jean Boulevard overpass above Donegani Ave., after a piece of concrete fell in July, 2012.

READ MORE: Traffic in the West Island getting out of hand

The work there is expected to last until the end of August.

Trudeau promised to being up the problems of the crumbling Sources Boulevard overpass with Jacques-Cartier MNA Geoff Kelley in the coming months.