WESTMOUNT — Arguably, it could be one of the worst roads on the Island of Montreal. Dorchester Boulevard is littered with frost heaves, bumps, holes and crumbling asphalt.
It’s earmarked to be repaired next year but the mayor is pushing to have it resurfaced this year due to its deteriorating condition.
“It’s really unacceptable. I must tell you, I’m embarrassed as mayor,” Mayor Peter Trent told Global News outside of Westmount City Hall.
The city plans to spend $2.6 million on road repairs this year and is budgeting $3.2 million for 2016.
And Trent has a long-term plan to return Westmount’s roads back to a condition that reflects the city’s affluence.
“We’re going to get Westmount’s streets back to the shape they used to be,” he said.
Furthest west, other suburbs are also beefing up their budgets trying to keep up with crumbling conditions.
Pointe-Claire has budgeted slightly more than $4 million for road repairs and the city has changed its priorities whereby it no longer waits for roads to completely deteriorate before ordering them to be repaved.
“We’ve felt it was better to do the resurfacing right away,” Mayor Morris Trudeau said.
The Montreal borough of Pierrefonds-Roxboro has a similar plan.
It’s spending at least $1.7 million on road work this year alone and it’s expected to receive more money from the central city.
Already, major infrastructure work as begun on parts of Gouin Boulevard, just west of the Deux-Montagnes AMT train line, where the road is being dug up to repair and replace aging water mains.
The city councillor for the district is surprised that, in 2015, a better grade of asphalt or know-how hasn’t been applied that would allow for better roads to be built and last for a longer period of time.
“Do we need to have better control of the materials being used and the work that’s being done? I believe that’s an issue,” Justine McIntyre, Montreal city councillor for Bois-de-Liesse said.
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