La Presse examines the condition of the city’s colmateuses, bought in 2018 to automate pothole repair, but not as useful as the city had hoped.
The machines were supposed to replace an entire team of blue collar workers, but the city has a lot more such teams working now, and not so much of the nifty machinery.
There’s also a short slideshow demonstrating how the machine works – on a clean dry street in summertime, with no traffic.
TVA has a lot of pieces on potholes: new emergency contracts with private firms; claims against the city rising and how to apply.
As readers will know, I don’t drive. But I rode around in a medium‑sized car with a friend last week for a few hours. The potholes were real!
Every so often, the city gets a bright idea to buy machinery, hoping it will circumvent the union by getting work done without workers. Remember the croque‑glace machines a couple of winters ago? Often these engineering marvels turn out to require too narrowly defined a set of conditions to work properly. They tend to be expensive and hard to maintain, too.
Maybe AI will eventually be able to judge the state of ice and snow vs. the weather conditions and apply the correct treatment, but right now, we still need human beings.
Later, TVA reports that although the city has no current contracts for pothole repair, those emergency contracts have been cancelled.
MarcG 12:11 on 2026-02-06 Permalink
I drove on the Decarie yesterday and was surprised as how well-maintained the road was. The potholes that were filled were done properly with the full rectangle patch. I wonder what makes it special.
patatrio 12:27 on 2026-02-06 Permalink
the pothole press is unrelenting this year. there is no escape from the asphalt holes, even if we spend an extra 500 million a year. Maybe they will be more palatable if we changed their name to say inverted speed bumps or random suspension checkpoints we columnists could worry about the big picture instead – eg. consolidating the road network, changing standards or expectations on what vehicles are expected to drive over, or how to mitigate the lifecycle of a pothole by other means. But ultimately, when the snow is piled high, when the winter turns to spring, you realize how silly and ineffective it is to imagine this system of transportation makes any sense really.
Ian 12:49 on 2026-02-06 Permalink
You say this, and I can sense your greenwhistle seeping in, but let us look at other cities even here in Canada and speculate – just for a moment – why it might be that our fair burg has more potholes than most, despite similar weather, technology, and usage. Hmm. How perplexing. The answer is clearly not just “this system of transportation”.
dwgs 09:39 on 2026-02-07 Permalink
@MarcG if you mean the Decarie Expressway it’s different because it’s maintained by Transport Qc, not the city.
Ephraim 10:10 on 2026-02-07 Permalink
Python is known for speed… not for doing a great job long term, from what I understand. For longevity, you are better off using other methods. The JCB unit is best for preparation, it cuts and cleans, so that it’s read for long-term repair with hot mix or infrared. Heck, for cold patching, there are regular level cold patch and better mixes, like Perma-Patch/Aquaphalt. But they are designed for SMALL patching. Not the giant patching we need in Montreal. But I don’t know if they have any 1 man machines for infrared. It’s usually used with a team. Anyone know if Montreal uses infrared at all?
Mozai 12:52 on 2026-02-07 Permalink
“Every so often, the city gets a bright idea to buy machinery, hoping it will circumvent the union by getting work done without workers … maybe AI will –” I’d like to interrupt so I can name for you the colours of this pot and this kettle.
Kate 13:08 on 2026-02-07 Permalink
Mozai, you have a beef?
Mozai 22:23 on 2026-02-07 Permalink
How is AI not “machinery, [hoped to] circumvent the union by getting work done without workers” and not “engineering marvels turn out to require too narrowly defined a set of conditions to work properly.” I want to call it “[tending] to be expensive and hard to maintain, too” but that’s just my experience and not a certainty.