Decades of inaction have resulted in a significant maintenance deficit in Montréal. Projet Montréal has invested record amounts in the quality of our infrastructure. At the same time, the city’s economic vigour has kick-started some major projects, particularly downtown. All of this improvement work reflects a growing city whose economic vitality is exemplary. However, it causes inconvenience on a daily basis. In order to limit the negative impacts of worksites, Projet Montréal will draw inspiration from best practices to revolutionize the sector.
a. Create Infra Montréal Vert, a research and development unit that will help ensure that our infrastructure is adaptable and resilient in the context of the climate emergency;
b. Group the project teams into one business unit responsible for carrying out infrastructure projects (following the New York model);
c. Continue the work started with the construction sites charter, and launch a major worksites summit in the first six months of a mandate to bring together major contractors, experts and local academic institutions in order to facilitate and coordinate interventions;
d. Create a data centre on mobility in order to properly plan interventions and to promote the improvement of worksites on the road network (following the Toronto model);
e. Speed up work by allowing certain sites to operate 24/7 in certain sectors, while respecting the tranquility of local residents, and plan an annual budget devoted to reducing the impact of certain major sites;
f. Strengthen the Mobility Squad by increasing the numbers fighting against barriers to circulation;
g. Adapt site signage to the urban environment so that it is less invasive and more efficient;
h. Tighten up the conditions for issuing permits to occupy public land to avoid unnecessarily long obstacles and guarantee good pedestrian circulation and universal accessibility, and increase monitoring of construction sites to ensure compliance with the conditions;
i. Pursue and improve the street repair strategy in order to take advantage of it to improve configurations and optimize worksite surroundings to facilitate the safe movement of pedestrians and cyclists;
j. Take advantage of the repair work on the Métropolitaine highway to humanize the area, reduce the nuisances of the highway and improve connectivity between neighbourhoods, and ensure a solid plan for mitigation measures to limit the negative impacts that detours will have on the neighbouring areas.