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Routing streets: that “plasters” despite years of delay in maintenance to catch up

The streets of Quebec municipalities are hard and cities do not have the means to do anything other than patcher In the short term so much the lack of maintenance has persisted for years.

“We did not maintain in time properly, which means that we are a lot of years late,” says Alan Carter, professor at the School of Higher Technology.

The deplorable state of the roads of the Ministry of Transport is well known in the province, but what about the streets managed by the municipalities?

The newspaper asked its readers to send street photos whose state is so lamentable that they deserve to be appointed as the worst in Quebec.

Nids-de-poule of an impressive size, cracks that no longer end, pavement that suggests rail rail rails or tram …


Binette Street, near Highway 640, in Saint-Joseph-du-Lac.

Binette Street, near Highway 640, in Saint-Joseph-du-Lac.

Photo provided by Jean Brien

It is clear that many streets all over Quebec lack love.

And plaster on the boho

“Our roads are in very poor condition, and it goes from bad to worse,” laments Serge Lefebvre, president of Bitumen Québec, an association of paving entrepreneurs and bitumen suppliers.

He believes that investments are not there to make up for the delay in maintenance and that the municipalities make with the little budget they have.

“Redoing a complete roadway is expensive. Often what we do is put plasters On the sores. It will be good for a few years, but not for 15 or 20 years like that should, “he believes.


Photo provided by Serge Lefebvre

And there are many factors in the streets managed by municipalities.

“Under the municipal roads, there are often underground infrastructure, water pipes among others. Whenever we have to intervene, we dig into the street, ”illustrates Danielle Pilette, specialist in municipal management at UQAM.

She notes that many streets managed by cities like Montreal and Quebec have been built long before the highways managed by the Ministry of Transport. They are therefore even more dilapidated.


Raws are apparent on Ontario Street, east of the Maisonneuve market in Montreal.

Raws are apparent on Ontario Street, east of the Maisonneuve market in Montreal.

Photo provided by Réjean Richard

More extensive than in Ontario

This is without counting the fact that Quebec has a lot of roads for a population of around 9 million inhabitants.

Ontario, which has 16 million people, has a less extensive network, among others because of its geography which ensures that its population is more concentrated in the south of the province.

“This is a choice of society that we made in Quebec. We have chosen to expand so that the neighbors are as far as possible, which means that we have a lot of roads for very few people, and in many cases, they serve very few, ”explains Alan Carter.

According to him, in some small villages and cities, it would be downright deconstructing the asphalt streets at the end of life to return to granular roads.

“We are able to make granular which does not make too much dust, there are techniques for that and it would cost much less,” he says.

felicity.rhodes
felicity.rhodes
A Boston-based biotech writer, Felicity peppers CRISPR updates with doodled lab-rat cartoons.
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