Ste-Catherine Street: how big a dig?

I disagree with this Allison Hanes column saying the Plante administration shouldn’t make changes in plans the Coderre party made for Ste-Catherine Street. The sewers and water mains do have to be redone: they’re ancient, and that work should proceed. But the foofy stuff, the heated sidewalks, the inflatable tunnel shelter thing, they’re dispensable.

Ste-Catherine Street isn’t broken, but a four-year worksite could put it at risk. Far better to speed up the necessary infrastructure work and get it over with than to keep the worksite open a long time to add unnecessary frills and fuss.