Hardly installed, the asphalt of a large part of the metropolitan highway has to be ripped out. Work on the western section of the road axis must be “100% resumed” because the bitumen used by contractor Roxboro Excavation was “not of good quality,” the Quebec Department of Transportation (MTQ) complained Thursday. Cost overruns borne by the private sector could reach more than 10 million.
Posted 3:16pm Updated 3:39pm
Henri Ouellette-Vézina La Presse
“From the Chemin Canora to the Chemin de Côte-de-Liesse, the work carried out in 2021 must be resumed at 100%. All asphalt must be ripped out and relaid with a new layer according to the ministry’s specifications,” said MTQ Metropolitan Montreal General Manager Fadi Moubayed on Thursday. He reiterated that such a misunderstanding was “a first” for the ministry, especially as it appeared on a “major” website.
As early as last summer, the government noted that there was “a little bleeding” on the highway’s surface. This phenomenon, usually associated with too much bitumen in the asphalt, actually causes the bitumen to rise to the top. The road therefore “gives the impression of being wet”, raising safety issues, Mr Moubayed said.
Laboratory tests then confirmed that the bitumen used was “not of good quality” and that some of its composition was of “lower grade” compared to what was requested. “We risked a faster deterioration of the road surface,” emphasized the ministry official. The latter then struck an agreement with Roxboro Excavation and Groupe Bauval, who were involved in designing the asphalt in 2021, to ensure work could resume “at no cost” to taxpayers.
In the west, the asphalt will be completely renewed in a flash in the coming weeks, and the major repairs will only take place after at least five years. In the east, where most of the work could start within five years, between the Provencher and Saint-Laurent axes, the asphalt is not being replaced, at least for the moment. In this segment, the contractor has undertaken to give a “five-year durability guarantee” on his bitumen. If it does not work, then the work will also have to be redone.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Fadi Moubayed and Michel Paradis from the Ministry of Transport.
For example, if we get 40% in the East Sector, we could be talking about an amount of about $10 million that the contractor needs to insure.
Fadi Moubayed
Lessons to learn
At his side, the Director of the Infrastructural Materials Directorate at MTQ, Michel Paradis, assured that the samples had nevertheless been “checked randomly”. Especially in “production”, when the ministry no longer carried out strict monitoring, the addition of bitumen would have posed a problem.
“We are talking about a production problem. It was a contractor error,” he said, blaming Roxboro Excavation directly. The company said Thursday it could not comment on the situation due to the nature of its contract with the MTQ. According to our sources, it was a “human” error committed by factory workers. Mechanisms have already been put in place to prevent the situation from repeating itself.
Fadi Moubayed, he went there with a culinary analogy. “When we bake a cake, we check the quality of the flour and eggs before we bake the cake, but once we mix, we will no longer check the quality of the eggs and flour. We’d rather look at the cake, its texture, color, taste, etc., he said, vowing the ministry would “learn lessons” from the case.
“We are in a continuous improvement process. Every year we review things,” said Mr. Paradis, who hopes to develop a “Quebec standard” for asphalt mixing plants by 2023. For the time being, Quebec uses an American standard, like several countries in the world.
A bounty of $820,000
In addition to considering significant cost overruns, Roxboro Excavation must also pay an “unconditional” monetary compensation of $820,000 to the Quebec government for “trouble and annoyance.”
It is estimated that an average of almost 200,000 motorists use the elevated portion of the Metropolitan Autoroute every day, of which 13% are heavy vehicles. The major repair work on this axle was announced in January 2020.
According to documents published at the time, almost all the structural elements of this highway, inaugurated in 1960, will be rebuilt or replaced: the pillars that support the structures will be repaired, the concrete slab will be rebuilt and a waterproof membrane will be added. . Slides, expansion joints, drainage system, lighting: everything will be remodeled or renewed so that this part of the Metropolitan will not require a new major intervention for 25 years.