Do you have questions about our editorials? Questions about hot topics in the news? Each week, the editorial team responds to readers of The Press.
Posted April 17
Spring is here and potholes are on the way. How is it that there is no adequate recipe for making the bitumen that covers our roads? The concrete is of better quality while the asphalt is increasingly of poor quality. Are there not competent engineers to consider this material with our winter seasons, freezing and thawing?
Francois Robert Jr.
Mr Robert jr,
You’re right: pothole season is in full swing in Quebec, an annual event that we would gladly do without.
Each year, the Ministère des Transports du Québec (MTQ) devotes nearly 10 million dollars to plugging these holes that undermine our roads. Last year, 19,200 tons of bituminous mix (known as asphalt) were used to plug some 300,000 potholes on its network.
And that is without counting the efforts of the municipalities.
Interventions, unfortunately, which are often not very durable.
“In many cases, the repairs are temporary because they are made in conditions that do not promote durability – cold temperature, presence of water, traffic density, etc. “, recognizes the spokesperson for the MTQ, Gilles Payer.
How come we end up playing in the same movie every year?
In 2015, The Press made a case on the matter. The main conclusion was that it is not really the quality of the bituminous mixes that is in question, but rather the lack of maintenance of the roads.
Alan Carter, professor in the construction engineering department at the École de technologie supérieure (ETS), confirms that this observation is still valid.
“The quality of the asphalt is not in question, he decides. Asphalt and concrete are of quality in Quebec. The problem is not there. »
The MTQ also ensures that the asphalt “must meet established and regularly revised standards and be used according to the rules”.
Couldn’t we use better materials?
“There are several developments in terms of pavement materials that we are trying to make more durable, less expensive and as environmentally friendly as possible, but that will not solve the problem of potholes in short term,” replies the professor.
The expert explains that a pothole is a sign of serious deterioration of a road. For it to form, the pavement must be so cracked that water seeps into it. As it freezes, this water expands and breaks the road below.
In an ideal world, the clogging of potholes that occupies road employees these days would therefore not even take place, since we would intervene before.
“To completely prevent the occurrence of potholes, you must prevent the appearance of holes and cracks in the roadway. To do this, we must first maintain the roadways,” explains Alan Carter.
Today, the MTQ estimates that 77% of the 31,000 km of roads under its responsibility are in good condition. That still leaves more than 7,000 km that are not, the equivalent of the trip from Quebec to Anchorage, in Alaska, by car.
As for the concrete that you mention, the companies that manufacture it have been campaigning for a long time to use it more massively on the roads. However, the Ministère des Transports du Québec is quite resistant to the idea. He prefers to reserve this material for high traffic roads where heavy vehicles circulate.
Barely 3% of the roads under the responsibility of the MTQ are concrete. This is the case for sections of highways 10, 15, 20 and 40, in particular.
Alan Carter explains that concrete is indeed more durable than asphalt, but that it complicates the work in the event of repair. He agrees that its use could undoubtedly be extended to Quebec, but believes that this material should mainly be used for highways and not city streets.
In the end, maintaining our roads would cost less than waiting for them to end up dying and then trying to heal them with band-aids. It only remains to hope that the message gets to the authorities.
In the meantime, everyone can also provide their share of the effort. Because the fact that cars are more and more numerous and heavier and heavier also contributes to straining our roads.