Smaller, picked up faster, Quebec promises that the orange cones lying around the streets will be a thing of the past in the greater Montreal area.
The orange cones stored at the edge of the tracks are legion in the metropolis. As proof, the City’s Mobility Squad, created in 2018, revealed that it had already collected nearly 3,122 useless beacons and traffic signs.
In the last week, the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility (MTMD) also picked up more than 100 cones on the island of Montreal, the majority of which did not belong to it.
The Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, therefore promises to store the orange cones when there is a period of inactivity of 72 hours, even if the site is not yet finished.
This is what she announced Monday morning during a panel before members of the Montreal transportation community.
This is already a “big difference” in the eyes of the president and CEO of the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal (CCMM). “For many sites, the norm is a few weeks,” explained Michel Leblanc.
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A few weeks ago, the City of Montreal embarked on the same path, but intended to leave a period of 24 hours after the end of a construction site to collect everything.
“Twelve hours or 24 hours, it is not realistic”, judges however the minister. “Below 72 hours, it’s a back and forth that loses business hours.”
The head of mobility on the City’s executive committee sees this as a good step forward. “Whether it’s 12, 24 or 72 hours, it’s still a marked improvement over what we had before,” said Sophie Mauzerolle.
Less visible cones
The Minister also wants to replace the large orange cones with smaller ones in urban construction sites, such as in the city center of the metropolis.
This measure was part of the commitments made by the City of Montreal at its worksite summit last March.
“If the smaller cones are perhaps more adapted to the reality of the city center, that does not mean that it is good everywhere”, however recalled the minister. “When you put big cones, there is a question of safety in there.”
By the end of the year, Quebec will also replace the cones with metal barriers to separate construction areas from pedestrian crossings.
Signage standards will also be reviewed for construction sites in lower speed zones, such as those of 30 km/h.
“We are going to make adaptations for the signage standards so that it is less wall-to-wall and that we are more adapted to the reality of each one,” argued Ms.me Guilbault.
More coordination
For Mr. Leblanc, the remaining issue is coordination. “I think the ministry is sensitive to that, the City is too, but so far it is clear that it is often last minute coordination,” he said.
The Minister assures that she will also tackle this problem. It will create an “innovation cell” in order to find a way to connect the work inventory platforms of Montreal and the MTMD.
“If the principle is there to say that we exchange information, we already have a huge step that has been taken,” said Mr.me Guilbault.