Overpass Catastrophe

Quebecers should be sufficiently outraged. I know I am. I have to confess, we're not used to all this attention. First, a deadly shooting takes place at my former College and now a concrete slab from an overpass falls in my home city of Laval. Both made it to CNN.

It's an overpass familiar to all. Boulevard Concorde is a major street in Laval. Just to give my American friends an idea at how big Laval is, its land area is larger than Montreal. There are roughly 360 000 residents and it happens to be among the largest suburbs in North America. Living here all my life my observations lead me to think that Laval falls into the category of a big town growing too fast for its small operation.

The slab that collapsed was on an overpass that rises above Autoroute 19 that spans two rivers and connects Montreal to Laval. The '19' eventually leads to a bridge known as the 'Papineau-Leblanc' bridge. At the time it was constructed in 1969, it was one of the world's first and longest cable-stayed span bridges. It still ranks among the longer bridges in North America.

Five people have been confirmed dead and six injured. The cars had been literally flattened. It's an offensive scene. A couple of years ago fatalities followed when the same thing happened in Laval on an overpass named Boul. Souvenir.

The question is this: what have Transport Quebec and the minister responsible for the health of our roads been doing? We obviously took for granted that they would do the right thing and inspect all our overpasses. They are calling for a public inquiry. It rings hollow. Shouldn't these overpasses be built better to begin with? They have roads and bridges in Europe that last a lifetime built by Romans and we can't ensure a slab does not fall onto our heads with all the marvels of technology at our feet?

Evidently government officials did not do their jobs. Point final. I can't see how they can spin this one. They should be held directly responsible for this catastrophe. Still, I'm a reasonable man and I shall await their report.

For years, Quebecers have been suspicious of who constructs and how our road infrastructures our maintained. Quebec roads (and drivers) are terrible when compared to the ones found right over the border in Ontario, Vermont and New York. The notion that our winters are brutally harsh (which they are) does not wash since, for example, Vermont and New York face similar winter conditions yet do not seem to have the wretched roads we Quebecers have to contend with. Montreal is infamous for its potholes. So much so that it's as Montreal as hockey, smoked-meat and bagels.

That's an urban conspiracy I can't prove or disprove. What I do know is that my wife and daughter had just used the overpass earlier in the day as did my parents. Using Concorde is the main road onto the bridge. How can such a major overpass be allowed to whither?

Earlier in the day debris had fallen. Cracks had been showing. Nothing was done. People paid with their lives. Families are broken.

We should all be very concerned and outraged. Alas, this is Canada. We don't get mad. We don't even get even. We just.....lie there.

I never trusted Quebec politics in the abstract. Now I can add in the concrete as well.

Note: Anger is indeed mounting. Opposition leader Andre Boisclair of the Parti Québecois said (and I paraphrase) what we are all thinking, "How can bridges be falling with all the technology we have?" Technology is nothing when it is met with incompetence. 20 of Quebec's 4500 bridges (including a 2nd one not too far from where the Concorde bridge collapsed and one that I have used regularly through the years on my bike route) are either closed or being closely monitored now.

2nd Note October 2: During the Dawson College shootings, people wanting to keep up with the developments had two news outlets to choose from: RDI (French language Radio-Canada who happened to be the first) and CNN. Local stations - Global TV, CBC Montreal and CFCF for example -apparently in tune with the pulse of our community were not to be found. If one turned to any of these channels they would have been treated to regular scheduled programming (ie soap operas). This continued for a couple of hours. How can CNN make it an immediate top story while our own news telecasts were still slow to reacting? I stuck to RDI and CNN. Same with the overpass.