Jesus multiplied the loaves. François Bonnardel, he multiplies the tunnels.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
The update of the Quebec-Lévis third link project, presented at the start of the long Easter weekend, now includes two smaller tunnels of two lanes each, which will allow the Minister of Transport to reduce the bill from 10 to 6, $5 billion. Four new roadways, therefore, which should, we are promised, reduce congestion on the two bridges in Quebec.
How does the minister arrive at this little miracle?
You have to have faith, like the Christians who will celebrate the resurrection of Christ on Sunday. A blind faith, because Mr. Bonnardel has no projection, feasibility study or conclusive data to support his argument in defense of a twin tube that will promote urban sprawl, on top of the market. “I’m working on it,” he just says.
This is bad news, because we are like Saint Thomas. Unbelievers, we need proof to believe.
The Minister gave us some figures, which we already knew: the Pierre-Laporte bridge was designed to accommodate 90,000 cars a day, it circulates today around 126,000, and this number will climb to 143,000 2036.
But these forecasts do not take into account any decrease in car use over the next few years. Failing to provide us with documents, his department instead produced a table that compares the number of bridges per million inhabitants in several large Quebec cities to illustrate that Quebec City is underprivileged. A painting that “forgets”, among other things, that Montreal is an island…
The minister says he believes in public transit. He repeatedly said that “for people to leave their second car at home” they would need a quick and comfortable option.
On the travel time, he is not wrong: it takes 45 minutes to travel from Lévis to downtown Quebec City by bus, morning and evening. It’s long. It must be said that the Capital region is seriously behind in terms of investment in public transport. It is to circumvent the famous horseshoe that plagues motorists – 88% of them are alone in their car at rush hour – that we want to build a third link. A tunnel that would pass under the river would, according to the minister, reduce the journey between the two city centers to about fifteen minutes. Unfortunately, he had no studies or simulations to demonstrate this. And he did not study other options that would focus more on public transit.
But the experts – town planners, urban geographers, etc. – are unanimous: when you increase road capacity, you increase traffic. It is demonstrated. Unfortunately, the minister ignores the experts and their knowledge.
As it ignores, it seems, the fight against climate change. This project is an invitation to urban sprawl, François Bonnardel doesn’t even hide it. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions just doesn’t seem to show up on his radar.
PHOTO PATRICE LAROCHE, THE SUN
François Bonnardel, Minister of Transport, during the presentation of the new version of the third link project, Thursday
To people of little faith who are worried about a possible urban sprawl around Lévis, Mr. Bonnardel and his colleague Geneviève Guilbault, who came to support him at a press conference, suggest looking at things differently: it is fact of “rebalancing” and “revitalizing”. Two euphemisms that mean: we developed west of Lévis, it’s now the turn of the east. As for the concern for densification that should be present in any self-respecting development project in 2022, Mr. Bonnardel replies that he does not intend to “force families to go and live in 20-storey towers because densification is in fashion”. Such a misunderstanding of urban planning issues leaves you speechless.
The Minister refuses to consider the construction of a third bridge – as suggested by the engineer Bruno Massicotte. The environmental impact of a bridge would be greater, he says. Do you have studies? No, but we know…
Same faith of the coalman when mentioning a possible dynamic traffic management that would optimize the Pierre-Laporte bridge. Impossible, says the minister, without any data to justify his answer.
As a faithful disciple, the mayor of Lévis, Gilles Lehouillier, is already ready to evangelize the most skeptical. Unsurprisingly, the mayor of Quebec does not share his fervor. It must be said that in its current form, the third link project is in total rupture with the ideas and principles defended by Bruno Marchand.
The filing of the business project is scheduled for 2025. By then, a lot of water will have flowed under busy bridges. Elections, negotiations to convince Ottawa to finance 40% of the twin tube – which is far from certain –, environmental impact studies… Will the CAQ still be defending the third link in three years? Only god knows.
Five months ago, we wrote that the giant tunnel project had to be buried. Its resurrection in the form of a twin tube has not shaken our convictions.