This is official: Duroking Construction won a 156 million federal government contract for the reconfiguration of the Bonaventure motorway which runs along the St. Lawrence River on the island of Montreal, although the company is banned from the city’s contracts for two years. The site will start in September and must stretch over four years.
The Federal Society of Ponts Jacques Cartier and Champlain Incorporated (PJCCI) confirmed this Thursday that the company obtained the contract to carry out the work of the new boulevard, as revealed The press Monday. The PJCCI specifies that the choice of Duroking Construction was made “at the end of a rigorous and transparent supply process”.
The mobilization of the site will begin at the end of August, the reconfiguration will begin in September and the work will be spread out until 2029. This phase should cost $ 156.2 million, which represents 55 % of the total envelope of the project valued at 282 million.
However, the Duroking Construction company, manager of work, is on the “gray list” of the City of Montreal.
She cannot obtain contracts for two years due to a disastrous performance on a site in the Pointe-Saint-Charles district which has spread over four years rather than two. One of the streets had to be excavated and closed several times.
At the start of the year, in documents from the Standing Commission on the Montreal Contracts exam, it was argued that “more than a dozen” warnings related to contractual obligations had been transmitted to Duroking in two years.
Questioned on this subject, the PJCCIs had argued that the work of the Bonaventure highway is projected on land which belongs to the federally even if they will be done on the island of Montreal.
The spokesperson for the state-owned company, Nathalie Lessard, wanted to recall that Durooing had already carried out work to strengthen the banks around the highway last year and that these “went very well”: “We even added additional work within the framework of this contract and the work was completed before the schedule. »»
The new Bonnaventure highway in short
The reconfiguration of the Bonaventure motorway must transform a 2.5 -kilometer section into an urban boulevard by 2029. The traffic lanes of the new boulevard will be far from the bank, to free up space in order to develop a green corridor of 80,000 m2.
The edge of the river will become accessible to the population: a cycle path and a pedestrian walk will be fitted out. It is planned to plant 650 trees, 18,000 shrubs and 13,000 perennials, which will reduce heat islets. The initiative should make it possible to reduce the road footprint and the heat islands by 40 %, according to the company PJCCI.