Les Entreprises Bourget Inc. releases statement calling on Que. government to improve the asset maintenance deficit
by CM Staff
Among the collateral damage resulting from poor road conditions, automobile maintenance costs for Quebec drivers are 2 times higher.
(CNW Group/Les Entreprises Bourget Inc.)
JOLIETTE — Entreprises Bourget, a road maintenance company, released a statement describing the position of the Ministère des Transports du Québec as “erratic”, pointing to the recent report by the Vérificateur général du Québec (VGQ), which notes that the deterioration of the road network’s pavements is increasing.
This shortcoming is all the more problematic, in the company’s view, given the context of climate change, which is likely to increase the scale of the investments required to control this deficit, according to the same report. Les Entreprises Bourget Inc. says that 50% of Quebec’s road network is in poor condition, and surface treatment can be a pragmatic solution, as it restores worn or uncoated pavements to a surface whose service life can be extended by several years, while protecting the integrity of the pavement itself.
“Since 80% of Quebec’s road network is made up of low-volume roads, surface treatment is the ideal solution for uncoated pavements, and the optimum alternative for extending the life of damaged pavements by at least 4 to 7 years, depending on the case,” says company president Luc Delangis. He pointed out that it is generally more costly for the government to intervene in the aftermath of a disaster than to invest in prevention, recalling the facts reported by the VGQ, which states that every dollar invested in adaptation avoids an average of between $13 and $15 in direct damage to roads resulting from disasters, not counting the indirect damage to the economy.
Among the collateral damage resulting from poor road conditions, automobile maintenance costs for Quebec drivers are 2 times higher. A recent study by the Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) puts these costs at $258 per year, compared with $126 for Canadian motorists.
The 50% of roads in poor condition is enough to justify a drastic change of course to at least delay the growth of the asset maintenance deficit (AMD), especially since the MTMD’s Independent Expert Panel considers that “a perfect storm seems to be brewing on the horizon with regard to the state of the road network: the road network’s asset maintenance budgets were already chronically insufficient to halt the growth of the AMD.”
For the company, there’s still time for the Ministère des Transports du Québec to react quickly, inviting it to emulate the governments of Ontario, New Brunswick and the New England states, which have invested tens of millions of dollars in this type of surfacing year after year.
