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A-720 eastbound tunnel closed; 15-metre block of concrete falls from ceiling

Started by Kniwt, July 31, 2011, 08:11:17 PM

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Kniwt

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2011/07/31/ville-marie-closed.html

QuoteA fallen piece of concrete has forced the closure of the eastbound lanes of Montreal's Ville-Marie Expressway, and a partial closure of the westbound lanes.

Police say the 15-metre block of concrete in the Ville-Marie tunnel fell near the City Hall exit. No one was injured and no one was stuck in the tunnel.

Construction work on the 39-year-old tunnel was under way at the time. Photo at the link with a whole gaggle of signs.


The Premier

Thank goodness no one was hurt. I'm assuming the tunnel or the expressway was under construction otherwise someone would have been injured or killed from that.

Has there been a history of these type of problems in the Montreal area?
Alex P. Dent

Duke87

There was an overpass that collapsed in 2006. And a couple bridges are in abysmal condition - one (Pont H. Mercier) has a span currently under emergency closure.
This all happening while beautiful new sections of A-25 and A-30 just opened and another couple beautiful new sections of A-30 are on the way.

Quebec seems to have a sizable case of the "build, but then don't maintain" bug.
If you always take the same road, you will never see anything new.

aridawn

Quote from: Duke87 on August 06, 2011, 09:40:12 AM
There was an overpass that collapsed in 2006. And a couple bridges are in abysmal condition - one (Pont H. Mercier) has a span currently under emergency closure.
This all happening while beautiful new sections of A-25 and A-30 just opened and another couple beautiful new sections of A-30 are on the way.

Quebec seems to have a sizable case of the "build, but then don't maintain" bug.

This is what happens when you spend all your money on separation, and not on maintenance of infrastructure.  The water and sewer problems in Montreal and Quebec City is another prime example.  You don't just fix them when a bridge collapses, or a road develops a huge sink hole.  The minister for MTQ must learn to understand this.

ATLRedSoxFan

There is a lot of corruption in Quebec, when it come to road contractors. My uncle was telling me that was the case with the A-25 overpass in Laval; it wasn't built to specs and other major overpasses are in severe decay..Between that and the severe winters and you've got a real mess. You can only imagine the nightmare which is coming when the Champlain bridge(49myears old) is replaced..Heck, the Jacques Cartier bridge was built in 1929(when my dad's family moved to Montreal) and is still in better shape than the Champlain Bridge and sees almost as much traffic.. At one point, it was the primary crossing from the South Shore after the Victoria Bridge. I will say, the roads overall in Quebec were in much better shape than when I was there last year, but I think we can thank the mild winter we had last season for that.

vdeane

Quebec certainly has major contrasts with roads.  The new roads look nice and shiny... while the old ones look like they could fall apart any second now.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position of NYSDOT or its affiliates.

Dr Frankenstein

Corruption in the construction industry is indeed a severe problem in Québec, and it has been making the news regularly for the past two years as a lot of dubious practices were getting uncovered. The population got quickly fed up with all of that and requested a public inquiry for several months before premier Jean Charest proposed alternative solutions and then reluctantly gave in.

The public inquiry is currently in progress and, well, we'll see what it does. Meanwhile, elections were held two weeks ago, and the Liberal party lost and Charest lost his MNA seat. The corruption in the construction industry was one of the reasons for his loss (along with the highly protested tuition hikes, his questionable management of Plan Nord and natural resources, and several other factors).

We can only hope for the best now.

Regarding the tunnel, I think the incident was blamed on the ongoing work being performed (mentioned upthread by Kniwt) on one of the walls supporting the shade screens that fell onto the roadway.

ATLRedSoxFan

I'm guessing at some point, that will become part of the Turcot interchange rehabilitation... I was just through there in July, but not that side of it. Actually, in lots of respects, Montreal's expressways are kind of amazing, especially the A-20 going towards Dorval/West Island.



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