Bumpy road ahead for highways
ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE has significantly improved, thanks to a massive spending boost, but much work remains and financing is in decline. The PQ wants to shift funds from roads to transit. The Liberals say cuts will doom us to repeat the errors of the past.
The road to ruin began as the Parti Québécois first came to power in 1976. After a transport-infrastructure spending spree in advance of Expo 67 and the 1976 Olympics, provincial investments in road infrastructure plummeted.
Successive governments, PQ and Liberal alike, kept road-maintenance budgets low in the 1980s and 1990s. Extending the life of a six-lane highway can help governments save $116,000 per kilometre, one study found. In Quebec, a lack of preventive maintenance meant it cost a lot to catch up later.
Recessions in the ’80s and ’90s partly explain the decline in Quebec highways, overpasses and bridges. Governments focused spending on hydroelectric infrastructure in the ’80s, then tightened purse strings in the ’90s as they tried to balance the budget, says a 2011 Hautes Études Commerciales study that compared Quebec road spending with that of Ontario and British Columbia, between 1961 and 2009. Quebec faces big challenges keeping its road network in shape. Compared with places such as Ontario, Quebec’s provincial road network is much bigger, (29,600 kilometres compared with Ontario’s 16,500 kilometres), with a smaller population, more precipitation and harsher winters, the HEC study noted.
Provincial spending on roads picked up after Liberals took power in 2003, but only skyrocketed after the de la Concorde overpass collapse in Laval killed five people and highlighted the folly of letting the province’s roads deteriorate. Investments in roads soared to levels not seen since the 1970s. It’s unclear how much of that money was eaten by corruption and collusion. Montreal has recently seen a 25-per-cent drop in the cost of construction contracts, crediting tougher rules and police crackdowns on dishonest dealings.
Now, with Transport Quebec figures suggesting recent years of massive spending significantly improved the state of the network, the PQ government has started cutting back. In 2012, it slashed $7.5 billion from infrastructure spending over five years. Last month, it said it would shift $1 billion from roads to transit, over six years.
Vowing to restore the $7.5 billion in road spending if elected, Liberals warn cuts would doom the province to repeat the errors of the past. The Coalition Avenir Québec criticized the cutbacks, but has not focused on the issue in its platform. Québec solidaire, is concentrating on electrifying transit and aims to make transit free for all within 10 years.
ariga@montrealgazette.com