The Overpass

They've reopened an overpass near my house. This in itself means little until one recalls the de la Concorde bridge collapse. Following the murderous collapse, Transport Quebec ordered bridges around the province to be inspected. The de la Concorde tragedy was not the first time the city of Laval witnessed in horror the third-world status of our infrastructure. A few years back the Boul. Souvenir overpass - a few kilometers from the de la Concorde - collapsed and killed I believe it was three people.

The de Blois overpass that just reopened did not collapse but it was shut down for repairs soon after de la Concorde. Clearly, there were structural problems. Count them, that's three overpasses the city of Laval and Transport Quebec failed to build properly. One can only surmise the level of corruption - still very much a part of our culture - that existed back then.

I took my daughter for a bike ride and ended up crossing the overpass. I could only shake my head in disappointment and disgust. Disappointment because I am part of a society incapable of building sound bridges. We talk of pride and other bull shit but we can't even get the basic engineering of a bridge right. They let greed get the better of them. Take the bribe for the love of a God ensure the safety of your work. Have some pride. Disgusted because people paid with their lives and there is no sense of outrage.

Then again, this is Canada - a people felled by laryngitis except but a few meaningless hockey games. Quebecers get more enraged about equalization payments, fiscal imbalances and language than they do about this sort of stuff.

The overpass was a link to my old soccer park. For a good number of years my team mates and I used the overpass to get to the park. A long time friend lived nearby. Heaven knows how many times we crossed it through the years. Easily hundreds. Perhaps thousands. It could have been any of us the racketeering could have killed.

It's amazing. We cheated death all those years?