A reader emailed to respond to my story in today’s Gazette about the Ville-Marie Expressway.
Hi,
Just finished reading your article on our Ville Marie express-way. It is amazing that we now are “at the half life” of a major highway after only some 30 odd years. It really says something about the design, building, quality assurance and maintenance of our roads, particularly if you only have to drive an hour or so East or South, where the climate and conditions are similar, to see and experience something not in such bad shape. I just read in one of my Dutch papers, that the foundations of the central square where I was born (’s-Hertogenbosch) were listed in archives in 1185! And some parts of the main cathedral are from 1206 (and are still standing). But that is not my topic here.
I particularly liked your statement near the end (on page A6) that starts with: “In the 1960s and 70s …” and “There’s no need for structures to be built…”.
Twice a year for the last 12 or so years I pass the interchange I495 (Beltway) to I95 just below Washington DC. For the last 6 or so years they have been building a GIGANTIC interchange there (not yet finished). The Turcot can hide in this interchange and not even be found, there are levels over levels over levels etc., etc. I have seen it building and it is a beautiful structure and serves its purpose, all traffic is so easily divided from road to road, that last year we passed it without even realizing we did. It occupies much less land then ground interchanges. Agreed, the climate is a bit milder there but if they saw the need to build something so absolutely convoluted and high there, just near Washington DC, they must have had a good reason, and the traffic volume (read: wear and tear) is much higher than here.
There is nothing wrong with multi level overpasses, if you build them from a good design and materials, and maintain them.
My response:
The point the engineering professor was trying to make was that elevated highways like Turcot and the Ville-Marie aren’t necessary.
Turcot was built high in the sky because at the time (the 1960s) big ships used the Lachine Canal (click on the Transport Quebec photo above to see the Turcot being built over the canal). It’s unclear why the Ville-Marie had to be elevated, supported by more than 200 pillars.
If it’s cheaper and easier to maintain (i.e. keep it safe), why build high?
Here’s the top of my story:
Andy Riga, The Gazette
Up above, cars zoom by, the hum they create pierced by the constant thump of tires crossing the joints between sections of the elevated Ville Marie Expressway.On the ground, bright orange traffic cones line Greene Ave., a reminder of the crack found in June in a support column nearby. A block away, a Transport Quebec truck is parked on the Atwater Ave. off-ramp, its yellow rooftop light flashing to warn motorists a lane is closed due to roadwork, part of a major emergency overhaul sparked by that once-precarious pillar.
Standing in the mud looking up at the pillar and the expressway’s underbelly is McGill University civil engineering professor Saeed Mirza, and he has some rare good news about the city’s road infrastructure.
The pillar – which, in June, Mirza feared might fall in an earthquake – is fine now, thanks to the addition of a concrete extension, Mirza said. And continuing repairs to weakened concrete on the Ville Marie’s underside have extended its life, provided the province’s newfound infrastructure-safety vigilance continues, he added.
The bad news: Users of the highway – one of Quebec’s busiest, carrying 168,000 cars to and from downtown daily – will have to put up with major, unpredictable traffic tie-ups in the city centre and on residential streets along the expressway at least until the end of the fall – and perhaps again next spring.
The rest is here.
