This morning the Minister of Transport Julie Boulet announced a plan to upgrade the road network of Quebec for the 2008-2009 budgets. A well made plan of 2,7G$ that should change the face of the patchwork our network is currently in. Looking at some numbers in the press release made the few hairs, I have left on my thick skull, rise up.
The envelope of 842M$ that is allowed to fight the aging of the infrastructures is an increase of 88% of last year amount for the same framework. It is a step in the right direction but, if that envelope kept an inflation increase in the previous plans, we shouldn’t be surprised of the poor state of the bridges and viaducts.
Another part is allocated for the roadway surfacing and totalises 736M$ to put up significantly the network. The development of new roads counts for 774M$ and is mostly turned towards Autoroute 50 and provincial roads 175 and 185.
In order to maintain the actual network, 71% of the budget is being allowed to this field, associated with 1G$ for safety and correction of dangerous areas such as, curves, unpaved shoulders, ruts in the pavements, etc.
As a bonus, the projected 1850 construction sites will maintain and create 36,000 jobs for the workforce. This may not include the workers of the orange barrels companies or the sign makers.
The only thing that worries me in the entire plan. Is this budget related to the vote in the National Assembly of the provincial budget? Both opposition parties are only awaiting a chance to turn over the actual government and all this nice effort could be gone.
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