Transports Qu├®bec

Road renovation Transports Qu├®bec, the agency charged with ensuring the safe passage of people and goods throughout the province, is literally building new lanes to the future. Kate Sawyer reports. Reliable delivery is a crucial element of modern business. In the province of Quebec, the Ministry of Transport, also known as Transports Qu├®bec, is charged with maintaining the infrastructure that makes this possible, from refurbishing roads and overseeing railways to administering ports. Transports Qu├®bec is responsible for approximately 185,000 kilometers of roads, plus 29,000 kilometers of freeways (or autoroutes), national highways, regional highways, and collector roads. In addition, it looks after approximately 4,700 bridges and overpasses, 1,200 kilometers of resource access roads, and 3,600 kilometers of mining roads. In the last 15 years, the number of passenger vehicles on the roads of Quebec increased by 68 percent, while the number of heavy-duty trucks went up by 34.5 percent. Therefore, it is Transports Qu├®becÔÇÖs main objective to ensure better conservation of the provincial road networks, meet the growing travel needs of an influx of passengers, and accommodate a large increase in heavy-vehicle traffic. Given the many unique factors involved, Quebec is one of the most difficult areas in the world in which to maintain and operate a road network. Climatic conditions in Quebec are particularly harshÔÇöwithin only a few hours, temperatures can vary as much as 25┬░C, and for four months out of every year, the ground freezes 1.2 to 3 meters in depth. In spring, after resisting deep-level freezing deformation, roadways must withstand heavy loads during the thaw period, when pavement strength is reduced by 40 percent. Given these strenuous conditions, it is paramount that the roads employed in Quebec are built and maintained with the best technologies available.One major focus for the office since 2005 has been the addition of two lanes to Autoroute 85, formerly Route 185, the fourth most-traveled entryway to the province of Quebec. More than C$13 billion worth of cargo passes through the corridor between Holy Antonin and Rivi├¿re-du-Loup each year. It is of utmost importance to the local economy to keep the major provincial arteries safe and efficient.ÔÇ£This autoroute project, requiring the investment of C$57 million, was one of the largest construction projects in Quebec for 2005,ÔÇØ said Claude B├®chard, Minister of Economic Development, Innovation, and Exportation and Minister of the Bas-Saint-Laurent and Coast North regions. ÔÇ£This major intervention in our region definitively shows the governmentÔÇÖs intention to pursue the improvement of this strategic transportation corridor, linking Quebec to its principal economic partners.ÔÇØ Known as ÔÇ£twinning,ÔÇØ the goal of the project is to transform this section of the Trans Canada Highway into a four-lane superhighway, thereby retiring Route 185. This improvement serves a dual purpose, as Route 185 had been colloquially known as one of the most dangerous roadways in Canada. The renovation will not only decrease substantial traffic delays in the region, but will improve overall vehicular safety.The Autoroute 85 project is 94 kilometers in its entirety, or 58 miles, running from the junction of Autoroute 20 in Riviere Du Loup southeast to the New Brunswick provincial border. Owing to its size, the project has been broken into four distinct sections for ease of project management. Thus far, only the first 8.8 kilometer section has been completed, at a cost of C$114 million. All told, the cost of the road reconstruction project is estimated to be C$1.1 billion, and the funds are sourced from both the provincial and federal governments.Construction began on the second section of the project in 2006 and is slated for completion this fall, totaling 12.2 kilometers stretching from St. Louis du-HaHa to Notre Dame-du-Lac. The total cost of this section of road is C$202 million. The last two remaining sections are the largest to tackle and will span a total of 73 kilometers in length. Transports Qu├®bec is collaborating with the New Brunswick Transport Ministry to connect two kilometers in both directions from the provincial border.┬á