In hopes of correcting the issues of congestion headaches caused by construction, the city of Montreal will be holding a worksite summit at the end of March.
Announced Monday, the forum will bring together various partners involved in the management of the city’s public work spaces.
The goal of the summit, according to the city, is to formulate a “concerted action plan” accompanied by “concrete solutions” to improve the management and coordination of construction sites in the city.
“This is long overdue,” said traffic analyst Rick Leckner.
“It’s a step in the right direction. Whether it’s overdue or not, it’s a step in the right direction and hopefully, they can get something meaningful in operation very quickly.”
Mayor Valérie Plante is holding true to an election promise made during the 2021 campaign.
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City engineers, developers, contractors and entrepreneurs will all be called to the table to discuss better management of worksites.
The city says the key topics will be signage, coordination of construction sites, and occupation of public spaces.
“There has to be more thought given to how the signage is done and where it is placed to give people an opportunity to make a choice,” Leckner said.
Yet lack of coordination between the city and its various boroughs, as well as with individual private contractors, poses the biggest issue, according to Leckner.
He is calling for a new position that would oversee traffic across the Montreal territory.
“There needs to be someone in a position of authority that says, ‘OK, I’ll listen but here is what going to happen,'” Leckner said.
“That way, when there are problems, they can be identified quickly and corrected. That is not the situation right now.”
The opposition critic for infrastructure and borough mayor of Saint Laurent, Alan DeSousa, says he has little faith in the summit.
“They are coming to the party a little bit late and we have seen the impacts of a lack of coordination of construction sites in Montreal just over the summer,” DeSousa said.
With contracts for work scheduled as early as this spring already awarded, DeSousa said there will be no time to implement any solutions as work will already be underway.
“I question how much time they will have to put things in place for the upcoming summer. I’m not holding my breath,” DeSousa said.