Quebec to give cash for aging roads
La Presse says there will be an announcement Thursday of more than $1.2 billion by Quebec to shore up Montreal’s aging road infrastructure.
After the cheering it may occur to people that this work will involve a lot of orange cones.
jeather 09:35 on 2023-05-04 Permalink
If the work lasted and they didn’t tear up the same street again within 12 months, that might be different.
Kate 10:25 on 2023-05-04 Permalink
I’m no engineer, but my observation is that roads are not forever. We think of them as permanent parts of the landscape, but what they actually are is structures laid down on the earth which take a hell of a pounding from vehicles while being affected by temperature changes, water infiltration, geological instabilities. They will always need to be maintained and repaired. Road repairs are a permanent fact of modern life, you can’t just do them once.
jeather 12:19 on 2023-05-04 Permalink
Yes, they aren’t a one and done, but Quebec’s roads are notably worse than Ontario’s, or northern New England, and — as we know, as we discuss regularly — they tear them up for a water main, then tear them up 12 months later for power cables, then tear them up 12 months later again for whatever new thing. They aren’t going to last forever, but roads should be able to last longer than they do now.
JaneyB 09:50 on 2023-05-05 Permalink
@jeather. Agreed. Quebec’s road repair schedule is nowhere near normal. My feeling is that the life of pavement here is about 10% of what it is in neighbouring climatic zones. I have seen roads here redone from down to the pipelines up to new landscaping that were dug up entirely less than one week later! Not normal. Not by far. When they redid Queen-Mary, it took almost 8 years to do and there were grooves in the asphalt a mere one year later. Not normal. Corruption or incompetence or both.