Bellechasse bus garage faces another obstacle
The massive Bellechasse bus garage, under construction for five years, and meant to go into service in a few months, can’t be used for fully electric buses. Only diesel and hybrid buses will use the facility. Electric buses are prone to burst into flames but this eventuality was not foreseen in the plans, even though the STM is in the process of electrifying its bus fleet.
La Presse says the new garage will eventually be refitted to handle the risk involved, but it’s discouraging that we’re already talking about expensive changes to a new, expensive facility that hasn’t even opened yet.
Do we know who was responsible for excluding consideration of the risk of storing battery‑powered buses inside an underground garage, when the plans were drawn up?
Spi 18:23 on 2024-06-04 Permalink
You can thank the NIMBY’s that got their way and had the garage buried when it wasn’t initially designed to be leading to the hundreds of millions in cost overrun.
Kate 19:25 on 2024-06-04 Permalink
The irony is that there was a bus garage there for decades previously.
Latour Roger 06:11 on 2024-06-05 Permalink
I wonder how many housings could have been built for that 600 millions that this half-baked place cost? Priorities…
Ian 09:07 on 2024-06-05 Permalink
We just had this conversation last week…
The average selling price of a home in Quebec increased by 3.7% year-over-year to $481,600 in April 2024.
link
So, uh, 1245.84
Kevin 10:16 on 2024-06-05 Permalink
My dad was an engineer who specialized in catching other engineer’s mistakes.
There are a lot of incompetent designers out there making plans that are only realized to be full of errors once construction begins.
Jonathan 13:13 on 2024-06-05 Permalink
The fire service is one of the most risk averse and constraining services in a municipality. They often have arcane rules and power over city planning. I’m not surprised they’ve put a wrench in this.
The huge waste of public money is the electrification of transport, especially of buses and private vehicles. This money could be used to improve access to public transport and inter-urban links… it would have more considerable impact on GHG emissions AND reduce traffic and particulates. Electric vehicles don’t save the planet, they just save the automobile industry.
Ian 20:55 on 2024-06-05 Permalink
Well, fire is kind of a big deal. I’m glad they are risk averse, it’s pretty destructive especially in older poorly maintained residential areas – like most of the Plateau & the SW in the 90s.