If it were not so tragic it would be funny

Sunday morning heading back home from an overlong bike ride – 68km, I noticed that a nearby overpass was blocked by the police.  Since I was not planning to go near there, what kind of cretin goes to a police blockade I always wonder?  I went home had a shower and moved-on with my daily activities.  Much later I found out that once again Montreal’s crumbling infrastructure led to a near disaster.  This time there were no injuries but it was a close thing, workers where around and apparently two cars had just passed under the overpass when something like a 100 tons of concrete decided that Newton was right!

This time Montrealers were lucky, but it has not always been the case.  Part of the problem is that for politicians what’s fun is building new things, but repairing them is always such a boor, plus you don’t get your picture in the paper for repairing infrastructure. 

Again, Canada’s press is full of miss-information (they’re very good at that), first was the statement that the overpass, bridges and other works were built to last 100 years – don’t know any structure (aside from damns) that are built to last a 100 years – in reality weather, and wear and tear means that structures (either in concrete or steel) have to be replaced/upgraded frequently.  The problem in Quebec (it is also true elsewhere) that money has been used for other goals.

No one thinks that providing virtually free daycare and free medication (at the very least cheap) will impact our infrastructures, but it does have a massive impact, since tax dollars can only be spent once. Our provincial politicians have clearly not been up to the job, in the last few days it emerged that a “secrete report” dating back from 2008 clearly indicated that the very structure that collapsed on Sunday was at great risk, moreover another study a year ago indicated that the situation was even worse.  BTW I am not suggesting that providing daycare is a bad idea, just that these are some of the choice that have been made by our province.

The actors:

The provincial government:  it has know for more than 3 years that the structure that collapsed was at great risk, and, until two days ago, refused to release two reports that indicated that this structure was at risk.  On the bright side, the same government has spent nearly $10 billion upgrading Quebec’s infrastructure over the past 6 years. 

The City Government:  Covered in laurels by the Montreal press, these are the same people that have worked tirelessly to delay the replacement of some of the most unstable highway structure in Montreal.  On the bight side they love mass transit, Montreal is the home of the ‘still unprofitable” Bixi – secretive and incompetent their value added in the process is minimal since the Montreal government has virtually no control over its revenues (Provincial subsidies) and expenses (contract negotiations with its workforce).

4^th Estate:  Not the sharpest tools in the shed seem unable to even undertake a Google search.  Granted that sensationalism sells papers it remains that their deep dislike of the current provincial administration colors everything.  Instead of asking the hard questions such as “How does the government prioritize its public works” they come up with “How can Quebcois know that this will not happen again”, morons I tell you! 

The Engineers:  The guys (who will remain nameless – but its easy enough to use Google) who told the contractor how much concrete to remove the wall surface and how it was to be removed – these were the same guys who analyzed the state of the overpass and said that the overpass was very unstable…

The Contractor: Clearly here (according to the press & governments) the guilty party here for 25 years of neglect, and improper procedures as instructed by the Engineer and the Government’s inspector (FYI Massive sarcasm here).

Quebec is not the only place where such underinvestment problems occur, what most forget is that until 1976, Montreal was the business center of the country.  The 1967 World Expo that took place in Montreal, saw massive infrastructure investments (Metropolitan Highway, Decarie Express Way, Ville Marie Highway), where material used was at time poorly understood.  These structures are at the center of all our headaches.