Risk of falling for an employee, presence of toxic dust in the tunnel and poor management of explosives: the Commission for Standards, Equity, Health and Safety at Work (CNESST) has repeatedly reprimanded the master of the Réseau express métropolitain (REM) in recent months.
The CNESST released on Tuesday the result of an access to information request aimed at obtaining all the intervention reports written by its inspectors concerning the REM construction site in the Mount Royal tunnel between November 14 2020 and last January 25. The origin of the request was not specified.
A sign of the extent of the challenges encountered by this project in recent months, the document totals 132 pages. In particular, we learn that work that was taking place on the Jean-Talon viaduct, between the entrance to the Mount Royal tunnel and the Canora station, had to be put on hold for several days in February after the visit of an inspector from the CNESST. He had found that an employee who was on the caterpillar of a mechanical shovel was “in danger of falling” more than three meters near a railway track.
“In addition, there is no means or collective protective equipment, such as a guardrail, to prevent a fall” potentially fatal, then noted an intervention report. The inspector thus decided on February 18, 2021 to order the suspension of the work that was in progress in this sector.
Site fences were then installed at the problematic location by the REM site contractor, NouvLR, which allowed the site to resume on February 22.
toxic dust
The CNESST also raised concerns last April about the lack of ventilation in the Mount Royal tunnel despite the risk of the presence of silica, an invisible and highly toxic dust. A report dating from January 2022 also mentions a lack of compilation of the readings of the various toxic gases emitted by the vehicles and the infrastructures present in the tunnel, which could however represent a risk “for the health” of the workers.
“There was a lot of lack of work planning in terms of health and safety on this site, it’s obvious”, observes the person in charge of health and safety files at the FTQ-Construction and member of the CNESST Board of Directors, Simon Lévesque, when questioned about the accumulation of these intervention reports.
NouvLR for its part indicated to the Homework that the vast majority of the recommendations made by the CNESST concerning the construction of the Mount Royal tunnel have since been implemented. “In terms of planning, we are very early in the process”, argued Wednesday the director of health and safety at NouvLR, Jean-Daniel Le Gallic, during a telephone interview.
Explosives management
On March 12, 2021, a CNESST inspector responsible for supervising the light rail project ordered the suspension “of all work involving the handling and use of explosives” on the REM site. This decision was made after a worker refused to use a jackhammer to break open a bulge containing explosives in the Mount Royal tunnel. He did well, because otherwise, “there is a nine out of ten chance that it would have exploded”, indicates the inspector’s intervention report.
There was a lot of lack of work planning in terms of health and safety on this site, it’s obvious
The builder NouvLR, however, claims to have since revised its methods of intervention in the Mount Royal tunnel. Most of the interventions involving explosives have thus been carried out in recent months by a remotely controlled device to eliminate any risk for workers. “We essentially work with equipment that is controlled remotely,” indicated Mr. Le Gallic.
Joined by The duty, the promoter of the REM, CDPQ Infra, for its part affirmed that “health and safety” on the entire construction site of this 67 km light rail project “are non-negotiable”. “Each situation is closely monitored, and we are working with NouvLR so that they put in place all the appropriate preventive and corrective measures,” added in writing the communications director of the Caisse de la Caisse subsidiary. deposit and placement of Quebec, Jean-Vincent Lacroix.