(Quebec) Deficient inspections and poor identification of needs on the part of the Ministry of Transport have caused the bill for the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel repair project to skyrocket.
This is what the Public Procurement Authority (AMP), the contract management watchdog created on the recommendation of the Charbonneau commission, concluded after an investigation.
The AMP released a report on Wednesday on its examination of the contractual management of the Ministry of Transport. She focused on the maintenance of major structures such as the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel (Montreal-Montérégie-Est) and the Papineau-Leblanc bridges (Montreal-Laval), Île-aux-Tourtes ( Montréal-Montérégie-Ouest) and Pierre-Laporte (Québec-Lévis).
Overall, the AMP found a series of “gaps” including:
- Poor planning of maintenance work
- A lack of monitoring of expert reports aimed at ensuring the sustainability of infrastructure
- Reactive rather than proactive management which leads to the use of emergency over-the-counter contracts, which are more costly
- Inadequate monitoring of work execution.
“These shortcomings have the particular consequence that the ministry does not carry out the necessary work in a timely manner, which has the effect that maintenance work is not subject to rigorous planning adapted to each infrastructure,” estimates the ‘AMP.
Quebec must issue findings without an emergency call for tenders in the absence of having carried out adequate inspections and regular maintenance. This was particularly the case for the Papineau-Leblanc bridges, in the maintenance of the stay cables, and Pierre-Laporte, in the maintenance of the hangers. “As a result, the ministry finds itself in a situation where it must award contracts by mutual agreement citing reasons of urgency or resort to other contractual vehicles given the challenges of planning and managing projects on its works. major. »
In the case of the maintenance of the Île-aux-Tourtes bridge, the ministry largely underestimated the quantity of mortar required, in addition to ignoring the 35 notices indicating that the contractor did not respect the manufacturer’s standards in the preparation of mortar.
The case of the tunnel
In August 2022, the Legault government announced that the structure of the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel, currently being repaired, is much more deteriorated than expected. The cost of the project thus exploded by a billion dollars, reaching 2.5 billion.
The vault was more damaged than expected. “This is the kind of deterioration that we can only measure once the work has started, and that we cannot anticipate with precision,” explained the Minister of Transport at the time, François Bonnardel.
However, the AMP considers that adequate inspections would have made it possible to detect the problem. She adds that the bill also increased because the ministry did not do prior tests to guide its choices for certain materials, choices which turned out to be inadequate. A test bench was only carried out once the work was already underway – too late, according to the AMP.
“Better identification of needs would have allowed better planning of the work, considerable savings and better management of public funds,” she writes. She adds: “From a perspective of sound management of public funds, a more rigorous identification of needs before the start of work, through preliminary tests of the selected materials and timely inspections, would have made it possible to better anticipate the issues surrounding the management of these facets of the project, as well as their economic and logistical consequences. »
As part of its review, the AMP analyzed more than 2,500 contracts and met with more than 200 stakeholders – ministry representatives, contractors, managers and engineers.