The water main that burst in downtown Montreal on Friday was considered to be in excellent condition, a revelation that raises doubts about the hundred or so kilometres of identical aqueducts in the metropolis.
The Press was able to see on Monday in the maze of the City’s open data that the section in question was classified “A” (out of a possibility of ABCDE), in a document dated August 2023. This assessment was probably based on the last inspection carried out, which dates back to 2018.
All day long, however, the City refused to reveal what age rating was associated with the 84-inch diameter pipe, which runs under René-Lévesque Boulevard East, between De Lorimier Avenue and Notre-Dame Street.
The pipe was “under surveillance” and was to be inspected again this fall, six years after the last inspection, said Chantal Morissette, director of the Water Department, flanked at a press conference by Mayor Valérie Plante.
Pressed with questions about the precise state of the structure, Mme Morissette declined to give details. “What I can tell you is that if [la conduite] “If it had been deemed critical enough to stop it, it would have been done,” she said.
Mme Morissette was nevertheless keen to point out that “90% of the water network is in good condition, that is already good news.”
“I’m not going to suddenly improvise as a pipe specialist,” added Mr.me Plante at the city council, when the opposition leader asked him specifically what condition the pipe was in when it burst. “I trust the teams.”
“Avoiding further disasters”
The stakes are high: Montreal’s underground network has 150 kilometres of pipes identical to the one that burst under pressure last Friday, flooding an entire area of the eastern part of downtown.
Their steel frame is particularly prone to corrosion, a phenomenon that workers, journalists and elected officials were able to see with their own eyes at the site of the disaster on Monday.
Maja Vodanovic, elected official responsible for the water file on Valérie Plante’s executive committee, stressed that an “A” condition rating could hide significant vulnerabilities. “There are different things that need to be looked at,” she said as she left the city council meeting. “We know that these pipes are more fragile.”
“The Plante administration still refuses to publicly disclose this note, despite questions from the media and the opposition,” opposition leader Aref Salem said in a written statement, calling for inspections to be accelerated. “How could a pipe that was in good condition in 2018 break? What is the condition of the other pipes that were deemed to be in good condition?”
The work to repair the pipe will not be an easy task. “It will be impossible to start the replacement work for several weeks,” Mayor Plante said on social media. In the meantime, temporary work will be carried out to allow René-Lévesque Boulevard to reopen.
Debby : “total fiasco”
In addition, the Plante administration had to defend its management of flooding caused by the remnants of the storm. Debbyfacing strong criticism at the city council.
During the first municipal council of the political year, Pierrefonds-Roxboro Mayor Jim Beis denounced the “inaction” of the mayor’s team on August 9.
311 told residents to call the borough, the borough called the Red Cross, the Red Cross called 311. It was a total fiasco, it was a circus that the disaster victims were faced with.
Jim Beis, mayor of Pierrefonds-Roxboro
Montreal’s mayor defended her administration’s actions during the crisis.
“I was in Montreal and we were coordinating teams who know what they’re doing. The firefighters emptied hundreds of basements. They were there, they were there for the boroughs,” said the mayor. “We’ve faced incredible floods in the past, this one was just as incredible.”
A few hours later, victims, sometimes emotional, asked elected officials what help they could receive from the City of Montreal for the losses suffered during last week’s floods.
“I’m down $300,000, it’s a disaster! Who’s going to pay for that?” asked one of them, a resident of the Saint-Laurent borough. “This is the fifth time in three years that I’ve been flooded.”
Maja Vodanovic, head of infrastructure on the executive committee, replied that he could take advantage of the municipal RénoPlex program, which offers subsidies for certain renovations.
“You have to protect your home, we don’t want this to happen again,” she said.