City’s roads cost more, hold up less

Montreal spends more than double what other cities pay to fix streets

It is not only an impression that Montreal roads are in worse shape than elsewhere. New data confirm the condition of the city’s streets is worse than in other places in Canada. It also shows that Montreal spends more than double, and even triple, what is spent on roads elsewhere in the country — despite having poorer results to show for the investment. The trend isn’t a new one, but it was confirmed once again in the 2017 figures released last week by Municipal Benchmarking Network Canada. “What is Montreal doing if it’s spending more and more money on roads, and yet the quality is not good enough?” former Westmount mayor Peter Trent asked on Wednesday, on the eve of Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante’s unveiling of the 2019 municipal operating budget and three-year capital works program. “We’re just throwing good money toward bad.” The data showing the poor state of Montreal’s roads despite its higher road costs should be a cue for the city to re-examine whether it sets a high enough standard for roadwork in its specifications and whether it’s investing enough of its roadwork money in long-term rehabilitation and reconstruction as opposed to cosmetic resurfacing, Trent said. He said he’s also wondered for years about the quality of roadwork that’s performed. As mayor of Westmount until 2017, he served as a member of the agglomeration council that includes the island’s demerged suburbs and that foots a portion of Montreal’s infrastructure costs. According to the latest annual survey comparing cities’ performance indicators on such activities as roads, parks and policing, Montreal spent $27,577 for each one-kilometre stretch of a single lane of paved road in 2017.

That was much more than any other city, such as Toronto, which spent $11,491, Calgary, which spent $7,077, and Hamilton, which spent $12,187. The median for the more than one dozen cities that participated in the survey was $11,926. The cost that’s measured in the survey includes roadwork, maintenance and cleaning, but does not include snow clearing. (The Regional Municipality of Halton in Ontario — a regional body, not a city — came in higher than Montreal in the 2017 survey, spending $32,959. But the regional municipality includes some transportation services costs in its figure, including land costs, which the cities in the survey do not include.) Ottawa did not participate in the survey last year. However, its 2015 cost per one-kilometre stretch of road lane was $11,883. The same year, Montreal reported spending $25,573. In fact, Montreal’s road cost is higher than every other city in the survey every year. An asterisk next to Montreal’s figures last year and the previous year offered this explanation from the city: “The higher cost in Montreal can be attributed to investments in infrastructure.” And yet the condition of Montreal’s roads is consistently worse than elsewhere, except Ottawa, according to the survey results. In 2017, 30 per cent of Montreal’s roads were rated as “good” to “very good.” It was the same result in 2016. However, the median in 2017 was 51 per cent. In Toronto, for example, the portion of roads in good and very good shape dropped dramatically to 45 per cent in 2017, but it was still much higher than Montreal. Toronto’s result was 73 per cent the previous year and between 78 and 79 per cent in 2014 and 2015. In fact, going back to 2014, only Ottawa has had a smaller percentage of roads in good and very good condition than Montreal. And it appears there’s no greater volume of traffic on Montreal streets to blame for its worse road conditions. In 2017, Montreal reported traffic volume of 1.4 million trips on its major roads. That’s the number of times a vehicle travels over each kilometre of lane of road. It was the same volume in 2016 and in 2015. That’s roughly the same traffic volume as Calgary and Ottawa, which had figures for 2013 to 2015, and less than such cities as Toronto, Hamilton, London and Winnipeg. Toronto reported traffic volume of 2.3 million in 2017. As the Montreal Gazette reported on Wednesday, a 2016-2020 intervention plan produced by Montreal’s civil service in 2016 that was never been presented to the public reveals that even if the city nearly tripled its total annual investment in major repairs and reconstruction of its road, water and sewer networks, the sustained massive spending increase would end Montreal’s roadwork maintenance “deficit” only around 2040. So as the Plante administration prepares to unveil the 2019 budget and the next capital spending program, the question will be not just how many dollars are to be spent on how many kilometres, but how much of that spending will go toward reconstruction and major roadwork. Plante’s 2018-2020 capital spending program this year dedicated $332.5 million to road protection in 2018, plus another $10 million for minor repairs of cracks and patches. However, only $159 million of it was destined for a program that the opposition says pays for major rehabilitation and reconstruction on the arterial and local road networks. Lionel Perez, interim leader of opposition Ensemble Montréal, said he’ll be watching on Thursday to see if the Plante administration will once again pour half of city roadwork spending into two minor rehabilitation programs next year. One program involves laying new asphalt on a road while it awaits major repair to extend the life of the road by five years. The other program involves scraping off some of the old asphalt and resurfacing to extend the life of the road by seven to 12 years. It’s not an easy balance, said Perez, who was on the city executive committee responsible for infrastructure under former mayor Denis Coderre. But Plante’s Projet Montréal administration increased spending on the minor rehabilitation programs in 2018 after slamming them as cosmetic covering of potholes while it was in the opposition, he said. “Yes, that kind of discussion has been going on for many years — how much reconstruction versus rehabilitation,” Perez said. “You have to look at the dollar amount. You have to look at the capacity of the city to execute in terms of ... resources. You also have to look at the market and you have to look at the population’s capacity to accept the level of work sites and work done. And as you know, we’ve attained by far that level of saturation where people can’t handle more. So it’s a question of finding equilibrium.” Meanwhile, Trent said three-quarters of Westmount’s roadwork budget is spent on complete reconstruction of a street, including sidewalks, while only one-quarter is spent on rehabilitation, which includes scraping off old asphalt. But he also questioned Montreal’s roadwork standards. Trent noted that the 2016-2020 intervention plan obtained by the Montreal Gazette through access-to-information specifies laying two layers of asphalt in Montreal’s definition of “major rehabilitation” and “reconstruction.” But Montreal’s intervention plan doesn’t refer to using concrete as a road base, even in its definition of “reconstruction.” It also doesn’t mention the thickness of the layers. It would be useful to know Montreal’s roadwork standards, Trent said, such as the quantity and strength of any concrete that’s used and quantity of recycled asphalt that’s permitted to be used. The adhesion of recycled asphalt, since it’s already been heated, isn’t as good as new asphalt, Trent said. “So we might be shooting ourselves in the foot by using recycled asphalt.”

That kind of discussion has been going on for many years — how much reconstruction versus rehabilitation.

DAVE SIDAWAY As the Plante administration unveils its 2019 budget and the next capital spending program, the question will be not just how many dollars will be spent on how many kilometres of roadway, but how much of that spending will go toward reconstruction and major roadwork.